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After the fire
Posted by Simon Parke, 7 Apr 2021
After the fire, when the flames have died, stand still with what was
If the ash still smokes in the morning dew, rake it gently over
As the robin watches on and a leaf scuttles by…
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Spirituality
Posted by Simon Parke, 6 Apr 2021
‘Spirituality’ is a word often used but rarely defined. So what is it? And does it really mean anything?
‘It seems to mean everything and nothing,’ says one weary observer. ‘Just one big blancmange of weirdness.’
There is sometimes a whiff of self-indulgence in the air when the word is used: people simply doing what they want and labelling it ‘spiritual’...
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Gethsemane
Posted by Simon Parke, 31 Mar 2021
An extract from my novel, ‘Gospel, Rumours of Love’. ‘Rocky’ is Peter.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, my chest is tight and I think of the fish in Rocky’s net.
There is a place in the net where the fish have nowhere to go; Rocky spoke of it. ‘On reaching that place, the fish can swim around as much as they like - but they can’t swim out! They live – but they’re dead!’
He tells it with pride but I feel with the fish tonight…
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My Julian talk
Posted by Simon Parke, 29 Mar 2021
This is a transcript of my talk on Julian of Norwich at St Luke’s, Holloway on Palm Sunday.
She was like one of those serial killers when the neighbours discover the awful truth.
‘Always kept himself to himself, that one.’ That’s what they say.
And Julian, one of the foremost women in English history, she kept herself to herself…
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Chronos and Kairos - it's about time
Posted by Simon Parke, 23 Mar 2021
Chronos and Kairos, you’ll know the difference between these two time-keepers.
Chronos is clock time, something linear. The day begins, the day continues, the day ends.
Kairos is about the propitious moment, the right time, a window of opportunity; it is synchronicity and revelation…
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‘Meet Jesus unplugged,’ writes former Fleet Street editor, Richard Addis, after reading Simon’s latest novel, Gospel: Rumours of Love. ‘In a stunning act of imagination, Simon Parke shatters every stained glass window in your mind.’
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In Solitude: Recovering the power of alone, Simon describes solitude as the active path to inner silence and takes us on an enthralling journey there. In a world of haste and distraction, he commends the way of stillness and withdrawal where we can ‘recover the power of alone’.
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Julian of Norwich, contemporary of both Chaucer and Langland, was the first woman to write a book in English. Yet remarkably, she disappeared from view for 600 years, before her rediscovery in the 20th century. My new novel is Julian’s own telling of her life.
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