Blog on the Learig

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February 01, 2026

2 February 2026 - Candlemas ‘Guided by the Spirit,’ writes St. Luke, ‘Simeon came into the Temple.’ Does this mean that the Spirit guided Simeon on this particular day and at this particular time to go to the Temple. Or is it more true to say that the Spirit guided Simeon to come to the Temple regularly from one year’s end to another. The reason why this is more likely is seen in the outcome of Simeon’s visit. What did he see when he came to the Temple? Why he saw a baby in his mother’s arms – no more, no less! Well that’s the point. He did see more! Others didn’t. The coming into the Temple per se couldn’t make him see more but a long life lived in the Spirit opened him up to the things of God. He saw in the baby a sign which was going to bring light to the Gentiles and glory to the people of Israel. What authenticates this experience is that the sign didn’t simply bring consolation but also destruction! Couldn’t God arrange thi...

January 31, 2026

1 February 2026 One of my favourite films is ‘The Mission’, produced in 1986 and starring Jeremy Irons as Father Gabriel, a Jesuit priest who sets up a mission in Paraguay. The soundtrack was composed by Ennio Morricone, an Italian composer. He recreates the colonial and indigenous music of the eighteenth century. What fascinated me was the way in which Father Gabriel with his famous oboe was able to teach the indigenous people music which belonged to the Spanish Baroque. I wondered whether this was true or not but today I heard it for myself. The University Chapel Choir combined forces with El Parnaso Hyspano who specialise in music from the Spanish Golden Age when the Spanish Empire was at its height (1500-1700). They have recovered indigenous music of the time and yesterday it was played and sung for the first time in Scotland after four hundred years! There were three distinct influences in the music – the European colonisers who came to mine gold and silver, the indi...

January 30, 2026

31 January 2026 Our street is very long – a mile at least. Apparently, when someone is recruited to work as a postman in the local area, they are automatically told to deliver the mail in our very long street. It’s like a rite of passage. Everyone has to do it. It means that we get to know quite a number of the postmen and, at least, one postwoman. A lot of people like to know their ‘postie’ by name and we do too. One of our friends, told us about theirs. One day, he asked her if she knitted. She hesitated for she hadn’t been knitting for a while. ‘Yes.’ she said shakily. The next time postie visited, he had a big black bag full of wool. It came from a shop clearance. Our friend was astonished. What was she going to do with it? She began by knitting a knee warmer. Postie gave it to a relative who took it to a nursing home and gave it to a resident. On a subsequent visit, he brought a photograph of the resident with the knitted blanket over her knees and news that sh...

January 29, 2026

30 January 2026 Matthew Syed was reporting on a recent visit to Florida where there is huge support for President Trump. He met a fifty-year-old woman called Jeanette who has voted consistently for Donald Trump in his bids to become President. Syed found himself pushing back against her admiration for the President. ‘But what about his lying?’ he said. ‘What about his serial deceit?’ A smile crossed her face at what she took to be his naivety and then she let the cat out of the bag, ‘Who cares about truth anymore?’ Clearly, Trump doesn’t care about the truth. Talking about British troops in Afghanistan, he caused outrage by saying that ‘they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines’. No less than 457 British soldiers were killed on the front line and many more injured and disabled for life. It was moving to hear the testimony of mothers of injured and dead soldiers and to see the fortitude of soldiers walking with prosthetic limbs and making something positive o...

January 28, 2026

29 January 2026 It is almost thirty years since I read ‘The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly’ by Jean-Dominique Bauby. He had a massive stroke in his early forties and could only move his left eyelid. Nevertheless, he wrote this book of reflections and demonstrated something very important. No matter what happens to the body, the inner live may still thrive and sustain a person with a spirit of hope. Health and wholeness may not be restored, illness and disease may not be dispelled but there may still be hope, meaning and purpose in life. Bauby wasn’t a Christian but he inspired me and enabled me to see the power of the inner life whether shaped by Christianity or not. It is a constituent part of everyone’s life and the medical world is waking up to this too. GPs and primary care-givers are being encouraged to consider this inner life. Dr. Ishbel Orla Whitehead, a GP, has been researching spiritual health and is pioneering a training programme for primary health giver...

January 27, 2026

28 January 2026 We saw the film ‘Hamnet’ starring Jessie Buckley as Agnes Hathaway. We always knew her as Anne. Her husband, William Shakespeare is played by an equally accomplished actor, Paul Mescal. The former won a Golden Globe for her performance and has been nominated for an Oscar. Although the works of Shakespeare surpass any other, his part is subsidiary to that of his wife in Maggie O’Farrell’s novel on which the film is based. His character is more thinly drawn. It is remarkable that Mescal made so much of it. The chemistry between husband and wife was electric. The film focuses on the Shakespeares’ family life and the death of one of their twins, Hamnet. O’Farrell’s thesis is that Shakespeare’s grief over his son’s death was creatively worked through in his most famous play, Hamlet. But is this true? Although the play is about a father and a son, both with the same name, it is about the murder of a father and the grief of his son. It is ...