Michael McFarland Campbell | Neurodivine.Blog

Lift. Listen. Lean. A Feast of Clarity and Care in the Midst of Constraint Readings: Psalms 145, 146 | Isaiah 55:1–13 | Luke 1:1–4 | RB 14 Reflection for St Luke’s Day There’s a gentleness in today’s readings—a kind of invitation that doesn’t rush or demand, but waits with open arms. “Come, all you who are thirsty… listen, that you may live.” Isaiah’s voice is not a trumpet blast but a hand extended across the threshold.

Lift. Listen. Lean.

A Feast of Clarity and Care in the Midst of Constraint Readings: Psalms 145, 146 | Isaiah 55:1–13 | Luke 1:1–4 | RB 14 Reflection for St Luke’s Day There’s a gentleness in today’s readings—a kind of invitation that doesn’t rush or demand, but waits with open arms. “Come, all…

Stitched into the Rhythm Stitched into silence and shared care, we mark time together—patients, nurses, rhythms—held in the grace of dialysis presence.

Stitched into the Rhythm

Stitched into silence and shared care, we mark time together—patients, nurses, rhythms—held in the grace of dialysis presence.

Let Them Come Children aren’t distractions—they’re divine disruptions. Let them come, wiggle, wonder, worship. Church isn’t tidy—it’s alive with grace.

Let Them Come

Scandal. Covenant. Mercy. In the wilderness of illness and betrayal, we hold fast to the rhythm of prayer. This reflection weaves Psalm 55’s anguish, Maccabean fidelity, and Mark’s scandal with the quiet insistence of the Rule: that even in pain, we forgive—and are forgiven.

Scandal. Covenant. Mercy.

In the wilderness of illness and betrayal, we hold fast to the rhythm of prayer. This reflection weaves Psalm 55’s anguish, Maccabean fidelity, and Mark’s scandal with the quiet insistence of the Rule: that even in pain, we forgive—and are forgiven.

When the Chalice Cracks A cracked chalice symbolizes sorrow and division within the Anglican Communion, yet grace still pours through the fracture with hope.

When the Chalice Cracks

Why Pronouns Matter Pronouns are not grammar; they’re grace—naming presence, offering dignity, and honouring each person as they truly are.

Why Pronouns Matter

Mercy, Memory, Morning In the quiet hours of Thursday morning, mercy meets memory in a rhythm that steadies the soul. From ancient lament to quiet resistance, this reflection weaves Scripture and sacred pattern into a gentle call to rise, remember, and sing.

Mercy, Memory, Morning

In the quiet hours of Thursday morning, mercy meets memory in a rhythm that steadies the soul. From ancient lament to quiet resistance, this reflection weaves Scripture and sacred pattern into a gentle call to rise, remember, and sing.

Golden Arches, Gentle Mercies There’s a kind of liturgy in the McDonald’s breakfast queue. The same greeting. The same menu. The same McMuffin, wrapped like a small gift of consistency. For someone who lives with autism—and the rhythms of dialysis—that sameness is not dull. It’s dignifying. Before treatment, when the body braces and the spirit steadies, a McMuffin becomes more than food. It’s a ritual of welcome.

Golden Arches, Gentle Mercies

There’s a kind of liturgy in the McDonald’s breakfast queue. The same greeting. The same menu. The same McMuffin, wrapped like a small gift of consistency. For someone who lives with autism—and the rhythms of dialysis—that sameness is not dull. It’s dignifying. Before…

Footprints Through Silence Holding Rhythm When Grace Feels Distant Readings: Psalm 77 | 1 Maccabees 1:41–64 | Mark 14:26–42 | RB Chapter 12 Psalm 77 begins in the night. Not the gentle hush of Compline, but the aching kind—where memory stings and the psalmist’s voice cracks with longing. “Has God forgotten to be gracious?” The question isn’t rhetorical. It’s the kind asked by someone who knows grace intimately and feels its absence like a missing limb.

Footprints Through Silence

Holding Rhythm When Grace Feels Distant Readings: Psalm 77 | 1 Maccabees 1:41–64 | Mark 14:26–42 | RB Chapter 12 Psalm 77 begins in the night. Not the gentle hush of Compline, but the aching kind—where memory stings and the psalmist’s voice cracks with longing. “Has God…

Sanctuary in Rhythm Holding Presence Through Pattern and Praise Readings: Psalm 73 | 1 Maccabees 1:20-40 | Mark 14:12-25 | RB Chapter 11 There’s something tender about Tuesday’s early hours. Not the ceremonial sweep of Sunday, nor the solemnity of Friday, but a quieter fidelity—a willingness to rise, to listen, to be held by rhythm even when the world feels uneven. The Rule’s guidance for the Night Office, though written for Sunday, offers a pattern that can be gently adapted to any day.

Sanctuary in Rhythm

Holding Presence Through Pattern and Praise Readings: Psalm 73 | 1 Maccabees 1:20-40 | Mark 14:12-25 | RB Chapter 11 There’s something tender about Tuesday’s early hours. Not the ceremonial sweep of Sunday, nor the solemnity of Friday, but a quieter fidelity—a willingness to…

Carries—Blessings for Those Who Hold and Are Held In clinical spaces, care often moves quietly—through gestures, glances, and the steady presence of those who stay. Carried is a page of blessings and thanksgivings written for nurses, patients, chaplains, carers, and companions. It honours the unseen labour of tending, the grace of being tended to, and the sacred rhythm of mutual care. Whether offered at the bedside, whispered during a shift, or shared in a moment of reflection, these words are meant to remind us: you are not alone. What you carry matters. And sometimes, being carried is the holiest thing of all. Explore the page here: neurodivine.blog/carried

Carries—Blessings for Those Who Hold and Are Held

In clinical spaces, care often moves quietly—through gestures, glances, and the steady presence of those who stay. Carried is a page of blessings and thanksgivings written for nurses, patients, chaplains, carers, and companions. It honours the…

Pattern, Presence, Praise Even when nights are short, rhythm endures—through psalms, memory, and offering poured out in trust, resistance, and presence.

Pattern, Presence, Praise

Even when nights are short, rhythm endures—through psalms, memory, and offering poured out in trust, resistance, and presence.

Grit. Grace. Gasp. When grace feels like a stretch and humour slips into prayer, what do we offer? A reflection on the quiet courage of showing up—even when the heart flinches.

Grit. Grace. Gasp.

When grace feels like a stretch and humour slips into prayer, what do we offer? A reflection on the quiet courage of showing up—even when the heart flinches.

Dwelling in Constraint, Rising in Praise This week’s readings speak of exile, endurance, and unexpected healing. Jeremiah writes to those displaced, urging them not to resist the place of their constraint, but to inhabit it fully: build homes, plant gardens, seek the peace of the city. It’s not a call to resignation, but to rootedness—to a kind of holy dwelling, even in foreign soil. Psalm 66 echoes this rhythm: “We went through fire and water, but you brought us out into a place of liberty.” The psalmist does not gloss over affliction.

Dwelling in Constraint, Rising in Praise

This week’s readings speak of exile, endurance, and unexpected healing. Jeremiah writes to those displaced, urging them not to resist the place of their constraint, but to inhabit it fully: build homes, plant gardens, seek the peace of the city. It’s not a…

Rooted, Called, Carried Named in Zion: Breath, Burden, and Benediction Psalm 87 sings of belonging—not by birthright or geography alone, but by divine declaration. “This one was born there,” says the Lord, naming outsiders as insiders, strangers as citizens of Zion. For those of us whose bodies mark us as different—whose rhythms are shaped by dialysis machines or the wheeze of asthma—this is a balm.

Rooted, Called, Carried

Named in Zion: Breath, Burden, and Benediction Psalm 87 sings of belonging—not by birthright or geography alone, but by divine declaration. “This one was born there,” says the Lord, naming outsiders as insiders, strangers as citizens of Zion. For those of us whose bodies…

“I Have Loved You”: A Neurodivergent Response to Dilexi Te Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te emphasizes love as a deliberate, embodied act, particularly for those marginalized. The text resonates with neurodivergent individuals, advocating for a Church that recognizes diverse forms of poverty and affirms the sacredness of love expressed through difference. It calls for presence, remembrance, and service to the poor.

“I Have Loved You”: A Neurodivergent Response to Dilexi Te

Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te emphasizes love as a deliberate, embodied act, particularly for those marginalized. The text resonates with neurodivergent individuals, advocating for a Church that recognizes diverse forms of…

Held in Pattern Finding grace in constraint, cosmic signs, and the body’s vigil There is a rhythm to dialysis. Not unlike the rhythm of the Divine Office—structured, necessary, and at times, painfully honest. It is a rhythm that reveals what is hidden: toxins, fragility, dependence. And yet, in that exposure, there is mercy. Psalm 51 dares us to speak the truth of our condition: “You desire truth in the inward being.” Not performance, not perfection—truth.

Held in Pattern

Finding grace in constraint, cosmic signs, and the body’s vigil There is a rhythm to dialysis. Not unlike the rhythm of the Divine Office—structured, necessary, and at times, painfully honest. It is a rhythm that reveals what is hidden: toxins, fragility, dependence. And yet, in…

Wing. Fire. Sign. A reflection on refuge, consequence, and discernment in sacred pattern. In the hush before dawn, Psalm 57 opens like a breath held in the chest: “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful.” The psalmist shelters in shadow, not in fear but in fidelity. There is a clarity here that speaks to the autistic soul—the refuge of structure, the sanctuary of truth.

Wing. Fire. Sign.

A reflection on refuge, consequence, and discernment in sacred pattern. In the hush before dawn, Psalm 57 opens like a breath held in the chest: “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful.” The psalmist shelters in shadow, not in fear but in fidelity. There is a clarity here that…

Stone Word Witness Practices that steady the heart through beauty, warning, and faithful speech. I sit with these passages as someone formed by a rhythm of shared work, ordered days, and quiet liturgical practice, and also as someone whose senses and attention follow different pathways. Here the scriptures meet the landscape of island weather, the inward order of habit, and the particular clarity that comes from thinking and feeling in sustained, detailed patterns.

Stone Word Witness

Practices that steady the heart through beauty, warning, and faithful speech. I sit with these passages as someone formed by a rhythm of shared work, ordered days, and quiet liturgical practice, and also as someone whose senses and attention follow different pathways. Here the…

Morning Mercy. Two Cats and a Quiet Question I woke slowly this morning, not to alarms or aches, but to the gentle weight of love. Niamh, our white cat, had curled herself close to my chest—near enough to feel my heartbeat, wise enough to stay clear of the dialysis line. Her presence was soft, deliberate, like a prayer that knows where to land. At my feet, Richard the tabby had claimed his usual post, radiating warmth like a furry hot water bottle.

Morning Mercy. Two Cats and a Quiet Question

I woke slowly this morning, not to alarms or aches, but to the gentle weight of love. Niamh, our white cat, had curled herself close to my chest—near enough to feel my heartbeat, wise enough to stay clear of the dialysis line. Her presence was soft,…

Quiet Giving, Steady Shelter of Small Sacrifices These passages present a God who protects and corrects, a people invited to tell of that protection, and a Teacher who exposes spectacle and honours the wholehearted gift of the poorest. The sweep moves from communal refuge and reputation, through patient correction that aims to restore, to a quiet instance of total, costly giving that rewrites what counts as true devotion.

Quiet Giving, Steady

Shelter of Small Sacrifices These passages present a God who protects and corrects, a people invited to tell of that protection, and a Teacher who exposes spectacle and honours the wholehearted gift of the poorest. The sweep moves from communal refuge and reputation, through…

Worship. Not Warfare

Militarised Christianity undermines democracy. True discipleship forms citizens through worship, conscience and compassion—not drills, ranks or recruitment. The Church serves best without an army.

Measured Mercy Matters Practices that bind memory, restraint, and neighbour-love into daily life These readings gather around a single truth: faith is lived where pattern meets compassion. Memory, measure, and mercy shape a life that keeps careful watch over small things while refusing to harden the heart. Ordered Longing The soul that remembers ancestral faith carries both devotion and question. That remembering becomes a disciplined longing rather than a brittle nostalgia.

Measured Mercy Matters

Practices that bind memory, restraint, and neighbour-love into daily life These readings gather around a single truth: faith is lived where pattern meets compassion. Memory, measure, and mercy shape a life that keeps careful watch over small things while refusing to harden…

Among the Cloud of Hidden Witnesses A reflection on hidden witnesses—women and LGBTQ+ Christians—whose ministries challenge exclusion and invite GAFCON and the wider Church toward grace, inclusion, and restored communion.

Among the Cloud of Hidden Witnesses

A reflection on hidden witnesses—women and LGBTQ+ Christians—whose ministries challenge exclusion and invite GAFCON and the wider Church toward grace, inclusion, and restored communion.

💚 Still Wearing the Ribbon: October Reflections on Mental Health and Solidarity Even in October, the green ribbon remains a daily symbol of solidarity, compassion, and commitment to ending mental health stigma.

💚 Still Wearing the Ribbon: October Reflections on Mental Health and Solidarity

Even in October, the green ribbon remains a daily symbol of solidarity, compassion, and commitment to ending mental health stigma.

In the Wake of Fire: A Reflection from an Irish Anglican I am heartbroken to hear of the fire at the mosque in England, coming so soon after the attack on the synagogue in Manchester. These are not just buildings—they are homes of prayer, of memory, of community. To see them harmed is to feel the ache of something sacred being violated. As an autistic Anglican living in Ireland, I often experience faith as rhythm—quiet, patterned, textured.

In the Wake of Fire: A Reflection from an Irish Anglican

I am heartbroken to hear of the fire at the mosque in England, coming so soon after the attack on the synagogue in Manchester. These are not just buildings—they are homes of prayer, of memory, of community. To see them harmed is to feel the…

Faithful in exile Grief, grace, and quiet endurance in the margins of scripture and life Reflection on the Sunday readings. Jerusalem sits empty. The psalmist weeps by foreign waters. Timothy is urged to rekindle a gift that feels fragile. The apostles beg for more faith, and Jesus answers with a story about a servant doing what is asked, without fanfare. These texts ache with displacement.

Faithful in exile

Grief, grace, and quiet endurance in the margins of scripture and life Reflection on the Sunday readings. Jerusalem sits empty. The psalmist weeps by foreign waters. Timothy is urged to rekindle a gift that feels fragile. The apostles beg for more faith, and Jesus answers with a…

First human transplant of kidney modified to have ‘universal’ blood type Recipient diagnosed with brain death received a type-O organ, which is compatible with all blood types.

🧬 Universal kidney transplant breakthrough

Scientists transplanted the first kidney converted to a 'universal' type O organ using an enzyme to remove type-A antigens. This could ease donor shortages and reduce wait times.

🔗 doi.org/10.1038/d415...

#SciComm #Medicine 🧪

A Prayer in the Dialysis Chair, in the Spirit of St Benedict In the quiet rhythm of treatment, I offer each breath as prayer, trusting that even this routine can be transformed into grace.

Here’s another prayer neurodivine.blog/2025/08/13/a...

Haemodialysis is painful? It certainly can be at the beginning but after seven years it doesn’t seem to be like that now for me.