As Wednesday is poetry day, here is a poem by an Anglican pastor....

......Just as a welcome to the Ordinariate members of the flock and as a forerunner to Lenten meditations:-

                               

                      When Jesus Came to Birmingham

When Jesus came to Golgotha

they hanged him on a tree.

They drave great nails through

hands and feet,

And made a Calvary.

They crowned Him with a crown of thorns,

red were His wounds and deep.

For those were crude and cruel days,

And human flesh was cheap.

When Jesus came to Birmingham

they simply passed Him by.

They never hurt a hair of Him,

they only let Him die.

For men had grown more tender,

And they would not give Him pain,

they only just passed down the street

and left Him in the rain.

Still, Jesus cried,

“Forgive them for they know not what they do,”

and still it rained the wintry rain

that drenched Him through and through;

the crowds went home and left the streets

 without a soul to see,

and Jesus crouched against a wall

and cried for Calvary.

G A Studdert-Kennedy

Confession - before Advent

   Forgiveness, God, for all my sins

I seek at last,

  the sin in word, the deed in heart, 

 foul sin compassed.

                 

                          In heedless youth I broke the rule,

                              made grievous slips,

                         offered fair women of gleaming teeth

                               lascivious lips.

Now  I am an old, old man

and after sinful years

    I seek no feast but that my cheeks

                                   be wet with tears.

         Medieval Irish Lyric