For This I Came: Spiritual wisdom for priesthood and ministry

By Wyn Beynon

Taking the famous Gerard Manley Hopkins poem on vocation 'As Kingfishers Catch Fire' and the Lord’s Prayer as its framework, For This I Came offers seventy reflections on the spirituality of priesthood to encourage and sustain all in ministry. Wyn Beynon brings a depth of wisdom and tools for reflection in the form of short poetic and prayerful aph

• Language: English
• Publisher: Canterbury Press
• Release date: Jan 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781786224682

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© Wyn Beynon 2023

First published in the UK in 2023 by the Canterbury Press Norwich

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The Author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the Author of this Work

Gerard Manley Hopkins, ‘As Kingfishers Catch Fire’, reproduced by permission of the Licensor Oxford University Press through PLSclear

R. S. Thomas, ‘The Priest’, Collected Poems: 1945–1990, reproduced by permission of the Licensor Orion Books through PLSclear

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

978-1-78622-466-8

Typeset by Regent Typesetting

Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd

Contents

Foreword by the Rt Revd Dr John Inge, Bishop of Worcester

Introduction

What I do is me: for this I came

1. Holiness, wisdom and mercy

2. Stuck in the middle

3. The scandal of the particular

4. Doing into being

5. Love and the image of God

6. This-ness

7. Hiraeth, lament and joy: hope

8. Discipleship

9. Mercy triumphs over judgement

10. No longer ego

11. Humility and humiliation

12. Holiness

For Christ plays in ten thousand places

13. The kingdom is not

14. Godly wisdom

15. Patience

16. The body and its weight

17. Virtually valueless

18. The power of keys

19. Prayer

20. The end of all things is at hand

21. ‘If you wish, you can be all flame’

22. Anamnesis

23. Remembering who we are

24. The great thanksgiving

Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his

25. The church does not have a mission

26. When our bodies lie in the dust

27. Speaking

28. Pzazz

29. ‘Tell all the truth, but tell it slant’

30. Beware of the dogs, the cutters

31. Union

32. Wrath

33. From glory to glory

34. Stewards of the mysteries of God

35. No longer ego

36. The last laugh

For thine is the kingdom, power and the glory

37. Power and control

38. The God delusion

39. Things to come

Now abide: faith, hope and love, these three

40. Faith, hope and love

41. Faith is love asserting itself

42. Hope is love seeing beyond the inevitable death of all things

43. Love is not an emotion

44.