disturbing presence

Mar 27, 2014

A few years ago I was inspired by a little book by Fr. Anthony Gittins, The Presence that Disturbs. The title refers to the great 1798 Wordsworth  poem on Tintern Abbey:

…And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man,
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things…

I was delighted to find Anthony Gitten’s keynote address at the 2012 LA Religious Ed conference is available on youtube. Well worth 50 minutes.

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Posts

shared ground

shared ground

a breath of lightness in the intensity and intimacy of being held in gentle embrace

a treasure

a treasure

After another weekend in the Mackenzie with Mass at Fairlie on Sunday morning

to listen

to listen

We struggle to separate the clamour of others’ opinions from the voice of God

matariki

matariki

God is using the stars to shift my focus from my own failures and successes