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Bus Station at the End of the Age
Rain makes the tarmac gleam like dark glass. Streetlamps haloed in mist. Puddles hold the sky in shards. A seagull shrieks above the...
Jon Swales
21 hours ago3 min read


East of Eden: Sheffield
After Morning Prayer, Father Pete lingered. The New Testament reading had been plain enough— a call to live at peace with one another. He...
Jon Swales
21 hours ago3 min read


The Gospel of the Wounded Church
The wild Messiah is not done walking. But now he limps in the Body. Here is the Church— the Body of Christ, broken. She is the Bride—...
Jon Swales
5 days ago2 min read


The Gospel of the Crucified King
Here is a man. Crown of thorns. Robe of mockery. A throne of timber — splinters carving truth into flesh. They called it execution. He...
Jon Swales
5 days ago2 min read


The Gospel of the Wild Goose
Here is the holy breath — Ruach, wind unleashed, fire unfenced, birth without borders. She, the Wild Goose, cannot be caged by pulpits,...
Jon Swales
5 days ago2 min read


A Lament for a Secular Age
Grieve for the thirst we no longer feel, for the hunger numbed by constant feasting. Name the beauty now hidden from our sight, the...
Jon Swales
5 days ago2 min read


Barefoot, A Crack Pipe & LXII
She came to score, back of the cemetery, where no one watches, where the dead don’t judge, no shoes on her feet, too sore, too blistered...
Jon Swales
Aug 42 min read


East of Eden: Stations of the Cross
Fr. Andrew wipes the drizzle from his glasses, cassock frayed at the cuffs, a stole of second-hand brocade— green today, though few would...
Jon Swales
Aug 45 min read


East of Eden: The Compass and the Cross
I. Scripture and Rubble She read Joshua that morning. Promised land, cities razed, milk and honey, sweet on the page, but with the taste...
Jon Swales
Aug 42 min read


East of Eden: Tower Hamlets
They call her Sister Act, Father Ted on an off-day. Once a workman yelled, “You dressin’ up, love?” She laughed, tapped her collar, in...
Jon Swales
Jul 273 min read


East of Eden: Manchester
They say he only works on Sundays, truth is, he works six, and Sunday’s the easiest. Done by noon, maybe even time for a snooze before...
Jon Swales
Jul 273 min read


Eros
Eros once lit the stars— a holy ache in the fabric of things, pulling cosmos from chaos, and Adam toward Eve. She moved through gardens...
Jon Swales
Jul 193 min read


The Holy Ache (Epithymia)
She was there when the ruach of God stirred the dust, a whisper of desire, a holy ache, woven into the soul. Before the fall, before the...
Jon Swales
Jul 192 min read


She fell near Leeds Bus Station
She fell near Leeds Bus Station. Where the pigeons limp, and the wind smells of chip fat, regret, and last night’s fight. One minute...
Jon Swales
Jul 192 min read


Homo Adorans
You shall love —with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might— but we have learned to think instead. To dissect. To label....
Jon Swales
Jul 192 min read


The Awakening
He woke, not with trumpet, but with tremor, a shiver in the soul as the Ruach hovered— not over ancient waters, but deep in the fault...
Jon Swales
Jul 192 min read


Flowers and the Pump
I saw it— on the road from Reeth to Arkengarthdale: an old petrol pump, abandoned by time, leaning like a tired priest who’d forgotten...
Jon Swales
Jul 192 min read


He’s Seen the Wounds
He didn’t leave Leeds for a fresh start. He left because staying meant fear. The flat was chaos — tinfoil graveyard, door kicked in,...
Jon Swales
Jul 73 min read


The Gospel of the Wild Messiah
The Gospel of the Wild Messiah He did not come robed in safety. He did not come crowned in gold. He came with dust on his sandals, blood...
Jon Swales
Jul 62 min read


A Scream from the Hill: Glastonbury & Gaza
From Glastonbury a scream broke through— 'death, death to the IDF'— words, not nice, should have been silenced, but words. Should the...
Jon Swales
Jul 21 min read
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