Amy Boucher Pye

Blog

  • Praying with a Painting: Capturing the real

    I love this painting of my dad’s – it’s one where he paints on the back side of glass, so he has to create everything in reverse. I didn’t get a great photo of it, as you can see the reflection above the two women, but the photo gives you an idea of the picture.…

    A scene in the Western part of America, with mountains in the the background. In the foreground on the left, three figures sitting at a table - two women and a man; on the right, two figures at another table, the man reading.

  • “Praying When the Going Gets Tough” (part 1) by Georgie Tennant: 7 Ways to Pray blog series

    When Georgie faced desperately sad news about her sister, she didn’t give up on prayer. I’m honoured to host her deep and poignant thoughts this week and next. You won’t want to miss her hard-won wisdom. It is March 2017. I am away on a church ladies’ weekend, due to speak in a session the…

  • “Stop, Stand, Stare” by Fiona Lloyd: 7 Ways to Pray blog series

    Have a read of Fiona’s gentle post about stopping and revelling in the wonder of God and creation. Her compelling invitation makes me want to step outside! What is this life if, full of care,We have no time to stand and stare. Poet William Henry Davies wrote these words more than a century ago, when…

  • A Season for Alleluia

    Happy Easter! We’ve entered the season of the church year of celebration and feasting – forty days of remembering with joy that Christ is risen and is among us. If we’ve observed Lent, the forty days of fasting before Easter, then we surely should mark this time of feasting afterwards. Augustine of Hippo, the eminent…

    A watercolor painting of a vase of purple flowers.

  • Praying with a Painting: Good Friday

    Many Christians view today as the most wonderful and most awful day—the day we remember the Man who was God who died on the cross that we might live free. I invite you to spend a few moments pondering and praying, sharing with God your feelings about how his Son came to earth as a…

    A watercolor rendition of Jesus carrying his cross with 2 soldiers helping him, with splotches of red and blue surrounding the three figures.]

  • “Cupboard Love” by Clare O’Driscoll: 7 Ways to Pray blog series

    What an inviting, guilt-reducing post by Clare about how God yearns for us to come to him with our prayers, as messy as they are. I’m sure you’ll be encouraged as you read. “Cupboard love!” cried my mum, smiling despite herself as we told her how wonderful she was. “You’re only saying that because you…

  • Praying with a Painting: Searching for hope

    The first thoughts I had when I saw this painting were that God holds us. We enter a boat and the water keeps us afloat – the image I have is of God’s everlasting arm underneath us, supporting us through not only trials and tribulations but through the joyous times of hope and celebration. (See…

  • “What Kind of Pray-er Are You?” by Sam Richardson: 7 Ways to Pray blog series

    I’m grateful to offer this powerful and vulnerable reflection by Sam Richardson, who heads up SPCK, my publisher. You won’t want to miss this, his follow-up from his blog in the autumn. In my last blog from September, I confessed that my prayer life was at a low ebb, and hoped that Amy would invite…

  • Praying with a Painting: Watching in hope

    I wonder if you resonate with this painting of my dad’s. I love the splashes of color that provide hope amidst a bleak and stark setting. We might feel overwhelmed with all that we face personally and globally – the invasion of Ukraine, the altercation at the Oscars, the latest variant of coronavirus. And the…

  • “The Jesus Prayer” by Ruth Bamforth: 7 Ways to Pray blog series

    I’ve long appreciated the Jesus Prayer, although I tend to pray a slightly longer version (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner”). I’ve found this prayer especially helpful if my mind is whirring around and I want to focus on God – perhaps if I’ve woken in the…