Recognition of human dignity is the first principle which must underpin our asylum policy. A hostile environment is an immoral environment. Each human being has an inherent and immeasurable worth, regardless of their status, wealth, heritage or background.

The book of Genesis tells us ‘God created mankind in his own image’. In Matthew 25 in the parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus tells his followers, about those who are strangers ‘whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’.

Care for the stranger has long been embedded in societies of Christian and Jewish roots and of other faiths right round the world. The welcome arrival in the UK of other religious faiths has deepened those traditions of compassion.

A compassionate asylum system is one that sees the faces of those in need and listens to their voices. A compassionate system does not mean open borders, but a disposition of generosity and a readiness to welcome those whose need is genuine and which we are able to meet. It also needs compassion and generosity to those communities that will receive refugees which are often neglected and forgotten, and I have seen this with my own eyes around the diocese I serve in East Kent, the Diocese of Canterbury, which perhaps bears the heaviest weight of this great crisis.

A compassionate policy is one that has confidence to reject the shrill narratives that all who come to us for help should be treated as liars, scroungers or less than fully human.

Compassion is not weakness or naivety. It recognises the impact on receiving communities, which includes the need to limit numbers and maintain security and order. Compassion means ending the criminal activity of people smugglers, perhaps one of the biggest industries in the world after drug smuggling. But it must distinguish between victims seeking help and criminals exploiting them.

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Recognising human dignity is the first principle that must underpin our asylum policy. A hostile environment is an immoral environment.

Each human being has an inherent and immeasurable worth, regardless of their status, wealth, heritage or background.https://t.co/TaDPsvu5Na

— Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) December 9, 2022

France are through to the final! 👊@adidasfootball | #FIFAWorldCup

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 14, 2022

A country that likes to think of itself as a model of phlegmatic common sense and good-humoured stability has become an international laughing stock: three prime ministers in as many months, four chancellors of the exchequer and a carousel of resigning ministers, some of them repeat offenders. “The programme of the Conservative Party,” declared Benjamin Disraeli in 1872, “is to maintain the constitution of the country.” The latest bunch of party leaders have broken their own laws, sidelined official watchdogs, disrespected Parliament and dishonoured treaties.

Not just a party, or a government, but Britain itself can seem to be kaput. England’s union with Scotland, cemented not long after Belton House was built, is fraying. Real incomes have flatlined since the crash of 2008, with more years of stagnation to come as the economy limps behind those of most other rich countries. The reckless tax-slashing mini-budget in September threatened to deliver the coup de grâce. The pound tanked, markets applied a “moron premium” to British sovereign debt and the Bank of England stepped in to save the government from itself.

Today the economy is entering recession, inflation is rampant and pay strikes are disrupting railways, schools and even hospitals. The National Health Service (nhs), the country’s most cherished institution, is buckling. Millions of people are waiting for treatment in hospitals. Ambulances are perilously scarce.

In Grantham, a town of neat red-brick terraced houses, half-timbered pubs and 45,000 residents, the malaise shows up in a penumbra of hardship. Amid staff shortages in the nhs—and an uproar—the local emergency-care service has been cut back. Immured in stacks of nappies and cornflakes at the food bank he runs, Brian Hanbury says demand is up by 50% on last year, and is set to rocket as heating bills bite. Rachel Duffey of PayPlan, a debt-solutions firm that is one of the biggest local employers, predicts that need for help with debts is “about to explode” nationwide, as people already feeling the pinch come to the end of fixed-rate mortgage deals. As for the mini-budget: “It was a shambles,” laments Jonathan Cammack, steward of Grantham Conservative Club.

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A country that likes to think of itself as a model of common sense and good-humoured stability has become an international laughing stock https://t.co/QoontZxrB6

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) December 13, 2022

Splitting water using electrolysis is relatively straightforward, and is already done in some hydrogen-generating facilities with access to a conventional water supply. The process, which takes place in an electrolyser, electrically separates hydrogen from oxygen and allows the hydrogen to be siphoned off. But with seawater this is more complicated because salt and other impurities can effectively destroy the electrolyser.

One option is to desalinate and purify seawater before processing it — but in some settings that can add cost. Another option is to treat the electrolyser components chemically to avoid corrosion, but that is viewed as impractical.

Now Heping Xie at Shenzhen University and Zongping Shao at Nanjing Tech University have come up with a workaround. They kept the electrolyser separate from the seawater with a waterproof, breathable membrane. A bit like a sieve, the membrane keeps anything other than pure water vapour from entering the electrolyser. As the water vapour is drawn in and converted to hydrogen, more is pulled in from the seawater to take its place. It is, they reported recently in the journal Nature, a self-sustaining system.

Read it all.

Chinese researchers claim to have produced hydrogen by splitting seawater without the need to desalinate or purify it first, according to a report in Chemistry World magazine https://t.co/g4Q7HdGBex

— Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) December 14, 2022

My spiritual director, a Norbertine Priest, diagnosed the problem as impasse and gave me an article by Constance Fitzgerald on the subject.

By impasse, I mean that there is no way out of, no way around, no rational escape from, what imprisons one, no possibilities in the situation. In a true impasse, every normal manner of acting is brought to a standstill, and ironically, impasse is experienced not only in the problem itself but also in any solution rationally attempted. Every logical solution remains unsatisfying, at the very least. The whole life situation suffers a depletion, has the word limits written upon it”¦.

This has been my relationship with the church for the past seven years””no way out of, no way around a sense of exile and alienation, despite much effort. Fitzgerald ties this to the teaching of the imprisoned 16th-century monk St. John of the Cross. In impasse, God is at work preparing us to know him in new ways. So, the proper response to impasse””as to the dark night””is not frantic effort, but simple, expectant waiting on God, “contenting [oneself] with merely a peaceful and loving attentiveness toward God, and in being without anxiety, without the ability and without desire to have experience of Him or to perceive Him,” as St. John of the Cross writes in The Dark Night of the Soul.

Read it all.

Today the Church of England celebrates John of the Cross, Poet, Teacher of the Faith, 1591 https://t.co/wAIZbI5kXZ

Image: Saint Jean-de-la-Croix in Ecstasy before the Cross, by Antoine Ranc, c.1705, in Saint-Matthieu church, Montpellier. Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons. pic.twitter.com/fpuN0dHoi2

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) December 14, 2022

Judge eternal, throned in splendor, who gavest Juan de la Cruz strength of purpose and mystical faith that sustained him even through the dark night of the soul: Shed thy light on all who love thee, in unity with Jesus Christ our Savior; who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

"In sorrow and suffering, go straight to God with confidence, and you will be strengthened, enlightened and instructed." – St John of the Cross, whose feast is today (14 Dec)https://t.co/MbV8ZAAhCK pic.twitter.com/IgbcAISQ4a

— Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P. (@LawrenceOP) December 14, 2022

O Lord our God, in whose hands is the issue of all things, and who requirest from thy stewards not success but faithfulness: Give us such faith in thee and in thy sure purposes, that we measure not our lives by what we have done or failed to do, but by our obedience to thy holy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Daily Prayer, Eric Milner-White and G. W. Briggs, eds. (London: Penguin Books 1959 edition of the 1941 original)

The day started at -4℃ and is slowly climbing to -1℃! Beautiful winter sunshine illuminating Lincoln Cathedral this morning 🙂
❄️Lincoln UK – 14th Dec 2022❄️@ThePhotoHour @StormHour @bbcweather
#WinterWonderland #Lincolnshire pic.twitter.com/FYQschsLDB

— The Creative Photographer (@Cloudwatcher32) December 14, 2022

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

“Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
who shall prepare thy way;
the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight”
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And there went out to him all the country of Judea, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, and had a leather girdle around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

–Mark 1:1-8

Good morning from Aberdeenshire! 🥶@visitabdn @VisitScotland @ScotsMagazine #ThePhotoHour #StormHour #Snow #Frost #Aberdeenshire #Scotland pic.twitter.com/LGkWEMRHN2

— Gordon Robertson (@gordo_rob) December 14, 2022

The Anglican Church of Canada’s national office is forecast to have a balanced budget this year—but substantial deficits and program cuts are likely in the years to follow, documents prepared for the November meeting of Council of Synod (CoGS) state.

The budget for 2023 is expected to have a modest surplus of $43,000, according to a budget document prepared for CoGS and dated Oct. 27. This includes the projected cost of $791,900 for the meeting of General Synod planned for the summer, as well as a gathering of Sacred Circle planned in the spring. To balance its budget, the church will use just over $1 million in funds that were set aside in previous years to cover these expenses, General Synod treasurer Amal Attia told CoGS. The national church was expected to have a similarly modest surplus in 2022, she said.

Prospects for coming years, however, as revenues are expected to fall, are not as rosy. The Oct. 27 document forecasts a deficit of $495,000 in 2024, $1.45 million in 2025, $460,000 in 2026 and $524,000 in 2027, and a budget narrative predicts cuts at Church House.

“Years 2023 to 2027 in the trend indicate that in the absence of increased revenue, program cuts will likely be necessary,” it states.

Read it all.

.@generalsynod sees deficits, program cuts post-2023 "Years 2023 to 2027 in the trend indicate that in the absence of increased revenue, program cuts will likely be necessary." https://t.co/l1lUf8HRRP

— anglicanjournal (@anglicanjournal) December 12, 2022

Argentina are in the #FIFAWorldCup Final! 🔥@adidasfootball | #Qatar2022

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 13, 2022

This was a Diego Maradona performance from Lionel Messi. This was one man inspiring his team-mates through his goal, his assist, his genius. This was the Argentina captain running the show, even when seemingly inhibited from running at full pelt by a slight hamstring strain, driving his team to the World Cup final.

Even Luka Modric and his gutsy side who fear no one had to bow down before Messi. Even Croatia’s usually noisy supporters fell silent as they stared open-mouthed at Messi’s brilliance. He took his penalty unerringly, helped create Julian Álvarez’s first and then destroyed the new prince of European centre backs, Josko Gvardiol, by finally racing through the gears and setting up a simple finish for Álvarez.

Read it all (subscription).

In hindsight, some things just didn’t add up about Jose Giammaria.

For one, the guest researcher at the University of Tromso, in Norway’s Arctic Circle, was ostensibly Brazilian. But he couldn’t speak Portuguese. Then there was the fact that he self-funded his visit, an oddity in academia, and even planned to extend it — yet he never talked about his research. But he was always helpful, even offering to redesign the home page for the Center for Peace Studies, where he worked.

That was until Oct. 24, when Norway’s security police, the PST, arrived with a warrant to search his office. Days later, they announced his arrest as a Russian spy, named Mikhail Mikushin.

The revelation sent a chill through campus, said Marcela Douglas, who heads the Center for Peace Studies, which researches security and conflict. “I started to see spies everywhere.”

Read it all.

European nations have grown wary that a desperate Kremlin is exploiting their open societies to deepen attempts at spying, sabotage and infiltration. https://t.co/rbhylhc7yz

— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) December 12, 2022

Greek Icon of the Second Coming pic.twitter.com/otBDFV3NQu

— Youssef Chahine 🇱🇧🇻🇦 (@Youssefkchahin1) March 29, 2022

Listen to it all (option to download is also available).

Loving God, who for the salvation of all didst give Jesus Christ as light to a world in darkness: Illumine us, with thy daughter Lucy, with the light of Christ, that by the merits of his passion we may be led to eternal life; through the same Jesus Christ, who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Hallow the vespers and December of our life, O martyred Lucy:
Console our solstice with your friendly day.
– Thomas Merton.

Today is the feast of St Lucy of Syracuse.

🎨Sulamith Wülfing. pic.twitter.com/BCbKJfCe2e

— Elsa (@ElsaMc1878) December 13, 2022

O God, who didst send thy messengers and prophets to prepare the way of thy Son before him: Grant that our Lord when he cometh may find in us a dwelling prepared for himself; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who came to take our nature upon him that he might bring many sons unto glory, and now with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, ever one God, world without end.

–A New Prayer Book (London: Oxford University Press 1923)

"December Country Road"#Snow #AlmostHeaven #WestVirginia #Highlands #SnowHour #ThePhotoHour pic.twitter.com/GfmiXvyuK9

— Thomas R Fletcher (@ThomasRFletcher) December 13, 2022

Therefore I intend always to remind you of these things, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to arouse you by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. And I will see to it that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we heard this voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word made more sure. You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

–2 Peter 1:12-21

Turn, turn, and see
Adventurous love, that leaps from out the world
Served by sweet growth.
In every twig and blade
I know the advent of my Saviour-God:
His moving thought is music in the wind.

– Evelyn Underhill, 'John the Baptist' #Advent https://t.co/2jjrsCJWP9 pic.twitter.com/PArTiKpVXQ

— Fintry Trust (@FintryTrust) December 11, 2022

THE next Suffragan Bishop of Ebbsfleet will be the Revd Dr Rob Munro, Downing Street announced on Friday. Although Ebbsfleet is in Canterbury diocese, under the House of Bishops Declaration, Dr Munro will function as a bishop to conservative Evangelical parishes across the whole Church of England whose PCCs have passed resolutions on the ministry of women.

The previous Bishop of Ebbsfleet was the Rt Revd Jonathan Goodall, who provided episcopal ministry to traditionalist Anglo-Catholic parishes in Canterbury Province. He resigned last year to become a Roman Catholic….

In July, the Dioceses Commission approved name changes to the bishoprics that provide episcopal ministry to conservatives and traditionalists. The commission ruled that the Ebbsfleet title would go to the successor to the Bishop of Maidstone, the Rt Revd Rod Thomas, who retired in October, and who provided episcopal ministry to parishes that held a complementarian theology (News, 8 July).

The suffragan see of Oswestry, in Lichfield diocese, was revived to provide episcopal ministry to traditionalist Anglo-Catholic parishes. It was announced last week that the Revd Paul Thomas would be the Bishop of Oswestry…

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“We need each other to be the body of Christ. We need not to be a basket of body parts, but to walk together as one body to be a witness to Jesus Christ to our world.” https://t.co/TnnIxJ3mxQ

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) December 12, 2022

“It has been 2½ years,” said advocate Michael Luciano as he tried to work a tab into a slot of the sculpture. At the first in-person World AIDS day event since the pandemic began, there is a clear need for more education and awareness of a disease overshadowed by COVID-19 in recent years.

Testing for HIV and services plummeted at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 as facilities shut down, people stayed home and others lost their jobs and their health insurance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report Dec. 1. Testing dropped off 32 percent nationwide and new diagnoses fell 26 percent. There was a partial rebound by the third quarter of 2020 as facilities reopened and people ventured back out, and fortunately many patients were able to stay connected to care and continued to receive their anti-retroviral therapy, the report found.

Now, service levels are almost back to pre-pandemic levels, said Hayley Berry, a pharmacist with the Ryan White program at Medical University of South Carolina.

“We’re getting there,” she said.

Read it all.

Overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of new HIV cases are declining across the U.S. and South Carolina but are still highest among young people who may not be aware of the disease's history and ongoing risk. https://t.co/Qbk8EV5HTx

— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) December 12, 2022

One could object that it is not worthy of God to wield the sword. Is God not love, long-suffering and all-powerful love? A counter-question could go something like this: Is it not a bit too arrogant to presume that our contemporary sensibilities about what is compatible with God’s love are so much healthier than those of the people of God throughout the whole history of Judaism and Christianity? Recalling my arguments about the self-immunization of the evildoers, one could further argue that in a world of violence it would not be worthy of God not to wield the sword; if God were not angry at injustice and deception and did not make the final end to violence God would not be worthy of our worship. Here, however, I am less interested in arguing that God’s violence is not unworthy of God than in showing that it is beneficial to us. Atlan has rightly drawn our attention to the fact that in a world of violence we are faced with an inescapable alternative: either God’s violence or human violence. Most people who insist on God’s “nonviolence” cannot resist using violence themselves (or tacitly sanctioning its use by others). They deem the talk of God’s judgment irreverent, but think nothing of entrusting judgment into human hands, persuaded presumably that this is less dangerous and more humane than to believe in a God who judges! That we should bring “down the powerful from their thrones” (Luke 1:51-52) seems responsible; that God should do the same, as the song of that revolutionary Virgin explicitly states, seems crude. And so violence thrives, secretly nourished by belief in a God who refuses to wield the sword.

My thesis that the practice of nonviolence requires a belief in divine vengeance will be unpopular with many Christians, especially theologians in the West. To the person who is inclined to dismiss it, I suggest imagining that you are delivering a lecture in a war zone (which is where a paper that underlies this chapter was originally delivered). Among your listeners are people whose cities and villages have been first plundered, then burned and leveled to the ground, whose daughters and sisters have been raped, whose fathers and brothers have had their throats slit. The topic of the lecture: a Christian attitude toward violence. The thesis: we should not retaliate since God is perfect noncoercive love. Soon you would discover that it takes the quiet of a suburban home for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence corresponds to God’s refusal to judge. In a scorched land, soaked in the blood of the innocent, it will invariably die. And as one watches it die, one will do well to reflect about many other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind.

–Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Nashville: Abingdon, 1996) pp. 303-304, cited by yours truly in the Sunday sermon

After the afternoon discussion with Yale Professors Ivo Banac and Miroslav Wolf #Decani #Monastery #rfpcourse #Kosovo pic.twitter.com/SOaDS0MKSY

— Dečani Monastery (@DecaniMonastery) August 16, 2013

Debbie Sholley always imagined she would be living comfortably by the time she reached her golden years.

Instead, the 62-year-old former social worker worries she will soon be living on the streets of this growing city, after her landlord raised the rent more than she can afford.

“I think about what it would be like, and it’s scary. Where am I going to go?” said Ms. Sholley, whose ailing husband died of Covid-19 in 2020 and who suffers from various lung ailments that keep her from working anymore. “I never thought I’d be in this position.”

Ms. Sholley is one of a rising number of older people around the country who are on the verge of homelessness or now living on the streets after falling on hard times. Homeless shelters and aging-service groups in numerous cities say they are seeing more elderly people in desperate need of housing than in years past. A confluence of factors are driving the increase, they say, including soaring rents, a nationwide shortage of affordable housing and the winding down of pandemic-related aid programs such as the federal eviction moratorium.

Read it all.

Aging-services groups in numerous cities say they are seeing more elderly people in desperate need of housing than in years past https://t.co/bQACAOYH5y

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) December 11, 2022

Most Gracious God, who hast bidden us to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before thee; Teach us, like thy servants Francis and Jane, to see and to serve Christ in all people; that we may know him to be the giver of all good things, through the same, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Today the Episcopal Church commemorates Francis de Sales, Bishop, and Jane de Chantal, Vowed Religious, Workers of Charity 1622/1641 https://t.co/LuV3ZUo2Qs

Image: Francis de Sales giving the Rule for the Order of the Visitation to Jane de Chantal, by Noël Hallé, Public Domain pic.twitter.com/edoSI7idsw

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) December 12, 2022

O Lord Jesus Christ, before whose judgment-seat we must all appear and give account of the things done in the body: Grant, we beseech thee, that when the books are opened in that day, the faces of thy servants may not be ashamed; through thy merits, O blessed Saviour, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.

Blessed is he who considers the poor!
The Lord delivers him in the day of trouble;
the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
thou dost not give him up to the will of his enemies.
The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;
in his illness thou healest all his infirmities.

–Psalm 41:1-3

Une Matinée froide impressionne avec une Vue dégagée sur le Paysage montagneux de l'Ardèche. #ThePhotoHour #StormHour #SnowHour #StormHourMark #NatureLovers #NaturePhotography #rtItBot#MagnifiqueFrance#FranceMagique pic.twitter.com/mHRVuI4gEq

— Signalas (@LdeSignalas) December 12, 2022

O Lord Jesus Christ, you sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise make ready your way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient toward the wisdom of the just, that at your second coming to judge the world, we may be found a people acceptable in your sight; for with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Morning all! Well it has been such a pleasure and a privilege to be back out, trusty camera in hand, enjoying the recent frosty sunrises in my local park with these beautiful creatures.🦌☀️🥰

Wishing you all a very happy Sunday.🤗@HRP_palaces @SallyWeather @StormHour #sunrise pic.twitter.com/m70WHHvOyO

— Scot Down South (@LesleyAM13) December 11, 2022

I will punish the world for its evil,
+the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant,
+lay low the haughtiness of the ruthless…
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
+the earth will be shaken out of its place

–Is:13-11,13a

‘Bora da’ 😄❄️☀️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
‘Good morning’ 😄❄️☀️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿@carolvorders @AledHall @hooson21 @ItsYourWales @Ruth_ITV @bootlegger1974 @StormHour @ThePhotoHour @RealShanCothi @HCynwal @S4Ctywydd @PipTomson @hawley_caroline @DerekTheWeather @carolkirkwood @sianharries_ pic.twitter.com/pPt4OC6De4

— Llelo Gruffudd (@Llelo2801) December 11, 2022

France overcome England to secure place in the Semi-finals!@adidasfootball | #FIFAWorldCup

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 10, 2022

A historic pride of Atlas Lions 🦁@EnMaroc | #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/MU9FMIRaHo

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 10, 2022

“But the man who is not afraid to admit everything that he sees to be wrong with himself, and yet recognizes that he may be the object of God’s love precisely because of his shortcomings, can begin to be sincere. His sincerity is based on confidence, not in his own illusions about himself, but in the endless, unfailing mercy of God.”

—No Man Is an Island (New York: Houghton Mifflin 2002 paper ed. of 1953 original), p.202

Also died #OnThisDay in 1968 – Thomas Merton, Contemplative and Writer https://t.co/jcyCsj9h8m pic.twitter.com/0tQoWyPlGG

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) December 10, 2022

Gracious God, who didst call thy monk Thomas Merton to proclaim thy justice out of silence, and moved him in his contemplative writings to perceive and value Christ at work in the faiths of others: Keep us, like him, steadfast in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ; who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Thomas Merton, the famed spiritual writer, died on 10 December 1968. His writings are still as relevant as his life story is fascinating. https://t.co/zBssVS99Tf pic.twitter.com/3EF0uqbQhP

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) December 10, 2022

O Almighty God, you pour out on all who desire it the spirit of grace and of supplication: Deliver us, when we draw near to you, from coldness of heart and wanderings of mind, that with steadfast thoughts and kindled affections we may worship you in spirit and in truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Calm at Battersea Bridge #London #ThePhotoHour #StormHour #calm #REFLECTION #Reflections #river pic.twitter.com/772StEMcxT

— Caroline Benyon (@CaroBenyon) December 10, 2022