大象传媒

Writer and priest Malcolm Doney finds surprising delights when taking a closer look at things we often take for granted.

According to Malcolm the familiar can too easily be ignored and subsequently disregarded. He warns that we are in danger of treating our surroundings like a 'blandscape'. For Malcolm there are valuable lessons to be learnt by immersing oneself in the local. This might all sound a bit parochial, but there's another way of looking at it. Malcom explains that if we celebrate the familiar, if we move our attention from the general to the specific, it can open up a whole universe.

Familiarity and routine can be associated with drudgery, but Malcolm draws upon the example of the Christian monastic tradition's Liturgy of the Hours, in which each day is divided into sessions of prayer from Matins and Lauds, to Vespers and Compline. These services provide structure, focus and rhythm they're, landmarks which anchor and support the spiritual development of the believer.

The programme features poems from Seamus Heaney and Norman MacCaig and extracts from authors Xavier de Maistre and Linda Sonna. Music featured includes Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze and Breathless by the jazz trumpeter Matthew Halsall.

Presenter: Malcolm Doney
Producer: Jonathan O'Sullivan
A TBI Media production for 大象传媒 Radio 4.