When I last posted in July, I mentioned my acer tree, which in the heat was looking tired, dry and lacking in colour. In the last couple of weeks it has shed all its old leaves and grown beautiful new ones, deep vibrant red. I've found this a hopeful sign, perhaps even a spiritual message. It made me think of George Herbert's poem 'The Flower':

'And now in age I bud again,
After so many deaths I live and write;
I once more smell the dew and rain,
And relish versing. Oh, my only light,
It cannot be
That I am he
On whom thy tempests fell all night.'

This autumn's Living Faith titles offer both hope and challenge. Staying with a creation theme, David Cole's The Celtic Year uses the changing seasons to encourage us into a more regular pattern of prayer and praise with a wonderful mix of liturgy, readings, reflections and blessings.

Seven Sacred Spaces is quite simply a treasure of a book! In his inimitable way George Lings explores the physical spaces we occupy and how these reflect - and influence - our spiritual lives. It's a must-read, particularly at this time when meeting and spending time together has undergone such major changes and there are so many questions we don't yet have answers for about how we gather as church and in community.


I've written elsewhere about our Advent book for this year, Gordon Giles' At Home in Advent. Another uncannily relevant read for the times we find ourselves in, all I can say is... buy it! And for study groups, Journeying through Advent with New Daylight provides five weeks' worth of material drawn from the New Daylight archives.

   

With my prayers for you all this autumn
Olivia

As BRF's Head of Content Creation, Olivia is into all things editorial, design, production, web and media. To find out what this looks like day to day, follow her on Twitter @OliviaWBRF.