Perspectives Magazine Substack Podcast

Perspectives Magazine
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Perspectives is the international journal of The Christian Community in the English speaking world. We publish weekly contemplations on the gospels, currently as poems perspectivesmagazine.substack.com

  1. 4d ago

    Herod

    My father told me of lords from afar who came with strange questions and set court astir, before they set out on paths that faded into the grey east. He did not speak of what came after. Hearing that John preached the hope of a kingdom – I had him brought to me. I am not like my father; I showed him favour. And he – he he dared to say – and I dared not – until she – until she danced – -Tom Ravetz Forthcoming events Feeling the DivineSummer School on the Trinity Epistle with presentations, contemplative exercises and conversation. On 26 July, 9 and 23 August at 7pm BST The first session isConscious of our humanity – The experience of the Father-GodThe link for the live stream is here. The links for the following sessions will be sent out nearer the time. We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration and deepen them by looking at the Trinity Epistle and Creed. These events will be held as webinars on Substack and are open to all. A donation is requested. We are grateful to those readers who have forwarded these poems to others. Our audience is growing! If you would like to help, use this button: And if you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do that with this button: Finally, apologies for the requests to upgrade your subscription to a paid one, which were included without our knowing in every email, including those occasional ones where we invite people to do this! We have now changed this setting. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perspectivesmagazine.substack.com/subscribe

    Herod

  2. Jul 11

    Prison

    I have been scorched and frozen in turn. I was there, when sky folded back torn open by a wing. My life has been spent in earth’s dark prison and this cell holds no fear for me. Soon I shall be free. Only one thing I ask, that I might hear it still with ears of flesh and blood: Are you the one? -Tom Ravetz Forthcoming events Feeling the DivineSummer School on the Trinity Epistle with presentations, contemplative exercises and conversation. On 26 July, 9 and 23 August at 7pm BST The first session isConscious of our humanity – The experience of the Father-GodThe link for the live stream is here. The links for the following sessions will be sent out nearer the time. We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration and deepen them by looking at the Trinity Epistle and Creed. These events will be held as webinars on Substack and are open to all. A donation is requested. We are grateful to those readers who have forwarded these poems to others. Our audience is growing! If you would like to help, use this button: And if you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do that with this button: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perspectivesmagazine.substack.com/subscribe

    Prison

  3. Jul 4

    The new man

    School had taught me: analyse! break down! The earth is one planet whirling in emptiness. Then they gave me a garden. The plant lives on one flat horizon. The sun makes his journey from rising to setting, drawing behind him a blessing bow. When someone showed me the world through a plant’s eyes, my heart swelled with longing to think for myself just one such a thought. -Tom Ravetz Forthcoming events Feeling the DivineSummer School on the Trinity Epistle with presentations, contemplative exercises and conversation. On 26 July, 9 and 23 August at 7pm BST The first session isConscious of our humanity – The experience of the Father-GodThe link for the live stream is here. The links for the following sessions will be sent out nearer the time. We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration and deepen them by looking at the Trinity Epistle and Creed. These events will be held as webinars on Substack and are open to all. A donation is requested. We are grateful to those readers who have forwarded these poems to others. Our audience is growing! If you would like to help, use this button: And if you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do that with this button: Finally, apologies for the requests to upgrade your subscription to a paid one, which were included without our knowing in every email, including those occasional ones where we invite people to do this! We have now changed this setting. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perspectivesmagazine.substack.com/subscribe

    The new man

  4. Jun 27

    Torn open

    The plummet that pulls heaven down tearing through reality’s smooth surface What throat could bear the voice to witness? What eye be wide enough to behold the bird aflame? -Tom Ravetz Forthcoming events Feeling the DivineSummer School on the Trinity Epistle with presentations, contemplative exercises and conversation. On 26 July, 9 and 23 August at 7pm BST The first session isConscious of our humanity – The experience of the Father-GodThe link for the live stream is here. The links for the following sessions will be sent out nearer the time. We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration and deepen them by looking at the Trinity Epistle and Creed. These events will be held as webinars on Substack and are open to all. A donation is requested. We are grateful to those readers who have forwarded these poems to others. Our audience is growing! If you would like to help, use this button: And if you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do that with this button: Finally, apologies for the requests to upgrade your subscription to a paid one, which were included without our knowing in every email, including those occasional ones where we invite people to do this! We have now changed this setting. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perspectivesmagazine.substack.com/subscribe

    Torn open

  5. Jun 20

    The still voice

    Multitudes of voices in the worldwide wilderness, the marketplace of certainties – ‘Get your freedom here! This way, salvation!’ – while in the desert of uncertainty, the underworld within, seductive voices, alluring lights – which is Lucifer and which is He? which is Satan, which is me? Who am I to choose a way? to know the truth? to carry life? In the evening, I make my offering, not pigeons, lambs or bulls – only fluttering doubt, bleating weakness, blundering loss of direction. Night: I am taken up to the ocean where all ways lead, where there are no voices, only Word and all lights pale in the sun, the Son. In the morning: here it is, inside me, enchanted into human form, my companion in the desert, our companion in the world, a still voice, singing: My joy, my love, my darling, thou my sister, brother, companion, thou my neighbour, friend and stranger, thou the heart of love – to you I bow. -Peter Howe The first line of the final stanza is borrowed from The Christ Child's Lullaby, a Hebridean song found in Carmina Gadelica by Alexander Carmichael. Peter Howe lives in Glasgow, is retired and writes poetry. He is a freelance editor and proofreader, and an editor of Perspectives. See: www.peterhowepoetry.co.uk You can hear Tom Ravetz’ poem, Generation, that he wrote for his congregation this week here. Forthcoming events Feeling the DivineSummer School on the Trinity Epistle with presentations, contemplative exercises and conversation. On 26 July, 9 and 23 August at 7pm BST The first session isConscious of our humanity – The experience of the Father-God The link for the live stream is here. The links for the following sessions will be sent out nearer the time. We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration and deepen them by looking at the Trinity Epistle and Creed. These events will be held as webinars on Substack and are open to all. A donation is requested. An appeal to all our readers As seems to happen with many Substacks, we have reached a plateau of around 250 readers. We are overjoyed that the poems reach so many already; we also wonder whether more people might enjoy reading them. This is the appeal: if everyone who reads this poem forwarded it to one person, our outreach would be increased. You can also share a link to the whole Substack, which has an archive of the poems. And if you’ve received this poem from a friend and you’d like to get one every week, please subscribe Let us know if you have comments about the poems or suggestions about how to spread them further. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perspectivesmagazine.substack.com/subscribe

    The still voice

  6. Jun 13

    life

    we parked askew and hurried up the steps leaning grasses brushing our shoes and then: I saw the riot of clover daisies orchids and bees in attendance sheer profusion forced my gaze wide humming life lifted my ribs – late or not I was alive -Tom Ravetz An appeal to all our readers As seems to happen with many Substacks, we have reached a plateau of around 250 readers. We are overjoyed that the poems reach so many already; we also wonder whether more people might enjoy reading them. This is the appeal: if everyone who reads this poem forwarded it to one person, our outreach would be increased. You can also share a link to the whole Substack, which has an archive of the poems: And if you’ve received this poem from a friend and you’d like to get one every week, please subscribe Let us know if you have comments about the poems or suggestions about how to spread them further. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perspectivesmagazine.substack.com/subscribe

    life

  7. Jun 6

    Scandal

    I started this Substack in November 2024, growing out of a contemplation series we had already been sending to around 300 people on the Forest Row mailing list. A conversation with a young friend – who told me she and her friends no longer read much, preferring audio – made me wonder how these reflections might reach a wider circle. This led me to Substack, and the podcast option. Before I had even decided whether to offer a paid option, a few people found their way to a paid subscription. Their generosity has given me the time to care for this growing community. In May 2025, I found myself wondering whether a prose contemplation might work better as a poem. I have written some song lyrics and read poetry all my life, but this was new territory. Those of you who have been here a while have watched it evolve. I have been deeply grateful for the encouragement of Peter Howe, deputy editor of Perspectives and a poet himself. Peter and I have now invited some of the poets who write for Perspectives to contribute here – roughly one guest poet each month from May onwards. I am fortunate to have been living with the weekly gospel readings for many years, so the motif usually finds me quickly; the real labour is always in finding the right form. I also learned early that writing a poem on Monday for Sunday publication makes for stress and thin poetry, so I now work several months ahead. We now have 240 subscribers. Publications like this grow through personal recommendation: if a poem speaks to you, please pass it on. A paid subscription gives you full access to the archive, occasional anthologies with notes and references, and a quarterly PDF of Perspectives. Tom Ravetz perspectives-magazine.co.uk This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perspectivesmagazine.substack.com/subscribe

    Scandal

  8. May 30

    Pars pro toto*

    I started this Substack in November 2024, growing out of a contemplation series we had already been sending to around 300 people on the Forest Row mailing list. A conversation with a young friend – who told me she and her friends no longer read much, preferring audio – made me wonder how these reflections might reach a wider circle. This led me to Substack, and the podcast option. Before I had even decided whether to offer a paid option, a few people found their way to a paid subscription. Their generosity has given me the time to care for this growing community. In May 2025, I found myself wondering whether a prose contemplation might work better as a poem. I have written some song lyrics and read poetry all my life, but this was new territory. Those of you who have been here a while have watched it evolve. I have been deeply grateful for the encouragement of Peter Howe, deputy editor of Perspectives and a poet himself. Peter and I have now invited some of the poets who write for Perspectives to contribute here – roughly one guest poet each month from May onwards. I am fortunate to have been living with the weekly gospel readings for many years, so the motif usually finds me quickly; the real labour is always in finding the right form. I also learned early that writing a poem on Monday for Sunday publication makes for stress and thin poetry, so I now work several months ahead. We now have 250 subscribers. Publications like this grow through personal recommendation: if a poem speaks to you, please pass it on. A paid subscription gives you full access to the archive, occasional anthologies with notes and references, and a quarterly PDF of Perspectives. Tom Ravetz perspectives-magazine.co.uk This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perspectivesmagazine.substack.com/subscribe

    Pars pro toto*
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Perspectives is the international journal of The Christian Community in the English speaking world. We publish weekly contemplations on the gospels, currently as poems perspectivesmagazine.substack.com

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