Christian Art | George Herbert | Sepulchre | The Church | The Windows
George Herbert | The Temple | The Church | The Windows
Lord, how can man preach thy eternall word?
He is a brittle crazie glasse:
Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford
This glorious and transcendent place,
To be a window, through thy grace.
But when thou dost anneal in glasse thy storie,
Making thy life to shine within
The holy Preachers; then the light and glorie
More rev’rend grows, and more doth wine
Which else shows watrish, bleak, and thin.
Doctrine and life, colours and light, in one
When they combine and mingle, bring
A strong regard and aw: but speech alone
Doth vanish like a staring thing,
And in the eare, not conscience ring.
George Herbert | The Temple | The Church | The Windows
Herbert’s poem focuses on themes of divine grace, human frailty, and the role of a preacher as a vessel for God’s light and truth. The poem is built around the metaphor of a preacher as a glass window through which God’s grace and truth can shine. It explores how the preacher’s life and message must be unified effectively to convey God’s word to others.
The first stanza establishes the paradox of human inadequacy and divine calling. Herbert describes man as a ‘brittle crazy glass’, emphasizing the fragility and imperfections of human nature. Despite this, God grants preachers the ‘glorious and transcendent place’ of being His instruments, reflecting God’s grace. This contrast highlights God’s transformative power, taking the weak and flawed and elevating them to serve God’s purposes.
In the second stanza, Herbert deepens the metaphor by describing the process of ‘annealing’, a technique in glassmaking where heat strengthens and purifies glass. When God ‘anneals in glass’ His story, the preacher becomes more than a passive conduit; rather, he embodies life and teachings of Christ. This process allows the preacher’s words to carry not only clarity but also the weight of lived experience, making their light and glory ‘more reverend’ and effective. Without this divine infusion, the preacher’s message would appear ‘watery, bleak, and thin’, underscoring the need for God’s active presence in the preacher’s work.
The final stanza explores the unity of doctrine and life, likening them to ‘colours and light’ combining in stained glass to create a powerful and awe-inspiring impact. Herbert suggests that speech alone, devoid of an authentic and holy life, fails to resonate deeply. Such speech ‘vanishes like a staring thing’, fleeting and superficial, reaching the ears but not stirring the conscience. This points to the necessity of integrity and harmony between belief and behaviour for the preacher’s message to be meaningful and enduring.
The poem reflects Herbert’s view of preaching as a sacred act that relies entirely on God’s grace. It is not the preacher’s eloquence or strength that matters but the preacher’s ability to allow God’s story to shine through. This requires humility, transformation, and a life aligned with divine principles. The poem is also an implicit prayer for preachers to be strengthened and purified, so they might faithfully fulfil their calling.
Herbert’s imagery of the stained glass window is a symbol of human weakness redeemed and illuminated by divine grace. It invites readers to reflect on the integration of faith and practice, and on their own role as vessels of God’s light in the world. The poem emphasizes that true preaching, like true faith, requires both words and deeds to be effective, this resonating with the idea of living as an example of Christ’s teachings.
‘Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O Lord.’ In this opening verse, the psalmist urgently calls upon God, imploring Him to come quickly to his aid and deliverance. The tone is one of immediate need and a deep reliance on divine assistance [ … ]
Christian Art | Our Lord Jesus On The Cross | God The Father | God The Son Office Of Readings | Advent December 23rd | A Reading From The Treatise Of Saint Hippolytus Against The Heresy Of Noetus | The Hidden Sacrament Is Revealed ‘The hidden sacrament is revealed.’ In this reading, Saint Hippolytus writes against the Noetic heresy, which denied the real distinction between the Father and the Son by treating them as the same person acting under different names. The purpose of Saint Hippolytus is to defend the Church’s confession of one God who is not solitary, but who exists with his Word and Spirit. Hippolytus begins by setting a principle: knowledge of God comes from the Holy Scriptures, not from speculation or private reasoning. Faith is not shaped by human preference but by what God has chosen to reveal. The Father determines how He is believed, the Son how He is glorified, and the Spirit how He is received. This establishes Scripture as the rule of faith and guards against theological invention. Hippolytus then affirms that God existed alone before creation, with nothing co-eternal alongside Him. At the same time, God was not without reason, wisdom, or power. Hippolytus insists that plurality within God does not compromise divine unity. God contains within himself Word, wisdom, and counsel. Creation begins when God wills and manifests His Word. The Word is not created from nothing but proceeds from God and acts as the agent of creation. The Word is first invisible to the created world, though known to God. When God chooses, He makes the Word visible, described as ‘Light of Light’. This language safeguards both distinction and unity: the Word comes from God and reveals God, without being separate from Him. The manifestation of the Word is ordered towards salvation, so that the world may see and be saved. Hippolytus identifies this Word clearly with the Son of God. Through him all things were made, and he alone comes forth from the Father. The Law and the prophets belong to the same saving plan. God speaks through them by the Holy Spirit, so that they proclaim not their own ideas but the Father’s will. Revelation is therefore coherent: creation, prophecy, and incarnation belong to one divine purpose. Hippolytus appeals to the Gospel of John to show continuity between prophecy and fulfilment. The Word spoken of by the prophets is the Word made flesh. Though the world was made through him, it failed to recognise him. This failure does not negate God’s plan but reveals the depth of the mystery now disclosed. A Reading From The Treatise Of Saint Hippolytus Against The Heresy Of Noetus | The Hidden Sacrament Is Revealed There is, brethren, one God, the knowledge of whom we gain from the Holy Scriptures and from no other source. Whatever things the Holy Scriptures declare, at these let us look; and whatever they teach, let us learn it; and as the Father wills our belief to be, let us believe; and as he wills the Son to be glorified, let us glorify him; and as he wills the Holy Spirit to be bestowed, let us receive him. Not according to our own will, nor according to our own mind, nor yet storming by force the things which are given by God, but even as he has chosen to teach them by the Holy Scriptures, so let us discern them. God, subsisting alone, and having nothing coeval with himself, chose to create the world. And conceiving the world in mind, and willing and uttering the Word, he made it; and at once it appeared, formed it in the way he desired. For us it is sufficient simply to know that nothing was coeval with God. Outside him there was nothing; but he, while existing alone, yet existed in plurality. For he did not lack reason, or wisdom, or power, or counsel. All things were in him, and he was the All. At a time and in a manner chosen by him he made his Word manifest, and through his Word he made all things. He bears this Word in himself, as yet invisible to the created world. He makes him visible, uttering the voice first, and begetting him as Light of Light. He presents him to the world as its Lord; and whereas the Word was visible formerly to God alone, and invisible to the world which is made, God makes the Word visible in order that the world might see him and be able to be saved. This is the mind which came forth into the world and was manifested as the Son of God. All things came into being through him, and he alone comes from the Father. He gave us the Law and the prophets; and in giving them, he made them speak by the Holy Ghost, in order that, receiving the inspiration of the Father’s power, they might declare the Father’s counsel and will. Thus, then, was the Word made manifest, even as the blessed John says. For he sums up the things that were said by the prophets, and shows that this is the Word, by whom all things were made. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him, and without him nothing was made. And later, The world was made by him, and the world did not know him; he came to his own, and his own did not receive him. Christian Prayer With Jesus Lord God,You are one, and from You come the Word and the Spirit.You have chosen to make Yourself known, not by human effort,but by what You have revealed in the scriptures. You spoke Your Word, and all things were made.You made that Word visible, so that the world might see and be saved.Grant that we may receive what You give,believe what You teach,and worship You as You have shown Yourself to be. Keep us […]
Saint Andrew of Crete describes the Cross as both the lowest point of human suffering and the highest point of divine action. He frames the Cross as the moment in which apparent defeat is revealed as the means of victory, and where humiliation becomes the setting of glory. This tension is already present in the New Testament: Paul declares that the Cross is ‘foolishness’ to the world yet the ‘power of God’ for salvation (1 Corinthians 1:18), while John’s Gospel presents the crucifixion as the very moment of Christ’s exaltation (John 12:23–32) [ … ]
