Author: raymond

It was St George’s day this week. The patron Saint of England (and of Georgia, and soldiers, among other things), whose cross is the centre of our national and union flags. The hagiographies are varied and often contain ’embellishments’, but

What do you make of Thomas? We give him the adjective ‘doubting’ and the combination is a modern idiom: Doubting Thomas. I wonder how he would feel about that. Maybe he’d be glad for the part he continues to play

I heard of a preacher who repeatedly contrasted the despair of Good Friday with the Hope of Easter Sunday. After each point (and there were many) he would say ‘But that was Friday, and Sunday’s coming’. For us as a

Baldrick’s cunning plan was to carve his name into a bullet. If somewhere there’s a bullet with your name on it, by owning that bullet he can’t get shot with it! (Blackadder S4E1). All around us today we see plans

What should I do if I find myself driving the wrong way down a one-way street (let’s not ask how I got there)? The first thing would be to stop (so I’m not actually breaking the law), better would be

“Do it to Julia!”. If you’ve read George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (I read it in 1983), you’ll know that this cry is what gets Winston, the protagonist, out of Room 101 – where his worst nightmare confronts him. He realises

In the book of Ecclesiastes it says “God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few”. Jesus said we shouldn’t babble like pagans (Matt 6:7), as if God could be impressed by our words

Have you ever looked back and asked yourself ‘was it worth it? Maybe you invested time and energy on some project which went well (or not), and took a moment to reflect: Was it worth it? We never stop to

Have you ever watched a child playing in the room where their parent is sitting? Maybe you remember doing so, but perhaps it was so natural and ordinary that you don’t remember. And as children grow up, they want to

But what do we mean when we say ‘Happy New Year? Is it a command (I order you to be happy this year), a general non-specific expression of hope (that the new year will be kind to you), a prophecy