February 19, 2024 Photo credit: Andrew Lubimov/Associated Press “If your beliefs are worth something, you must be willing to stand up for them. And if necessary, make some sacrifices.” Alexsei A. Navalny Disclaimer: This quotation is not one that I included on the notecards that I made for my daughter at Christmas, nor is itContinueContinue reading “Lent Day Six: Alexsei A. Navalny”
Category Archives: spirituality
First Lenten Sabbath: Wendell Berry
February 18, 2024 During the Lenten Season, before Easter Sunday, “regular” Sundays, like today, are not included in the 40-day count of preparation because they are considered “mini resurrections.” So, instead of sharing a meditation on one of the many quotations I have procured this past year, I will share a poem that matches theContinueContinue reading “First Lenten Sabbath: Wendell Berry”
Lent Day 3: The Buddha
February 16, 2024 “Those who are awake live in a state of constant amazement.” The Buddha On this third day of Lent, the quotation that I sit with comes from Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as The Buddha (‘the Awakened’), who was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher living in South Asia during the 6th or 5th centuryContinueContinue reading “Lent Day 3: The Buddha”
Lent Day Two: Anonymous
February 15, 2024 “Let a need to love replace my need to understand.” From The Cloud of Unknowing On this second day of Lent, the quotation that I sit with comes from the book Where Only Love Can Go: A Journey of the Soul into The Cloud of Unknowing (quite a title!). The introduction explains,ContinueContinue reading “Lent Day Two: Anonymous”
Lent Day One: Anthony De Mello
February 14, 2024 “Both what you run away from—and yearn for—is in you.” Anthony De Mello, Society of Jesus I begin these Lenten day blogs with a quotation from Fr. Anthony de Mello that seemed to peg me. I sometimes wonder if we really are as complex as we imagine we are, or if, instead, weContinueContinue reading “Lent Day One: Anthony De Mello”
From Pelagius to David Bowie
Feb 12, 2024 Note: Second attempt to email this post. “Write down with your own hand on paper what God has written with his hand on the human heart.” Pelagius For Christmas this past year, I gave my daughter a stack of notecards, each one inscribed with a quotation that had drifted across my path fromContinueContinue reading “From Pelagius to David Bowie”
From Pelagius to David Bowie
February 11, 2024 “Write down with your own hand on paper what God has written with his hand on the human heart.” Pelagius For Christmas this past year, I gave my daughter a stack of notecards, each one inscribed with a quotation that had drifted across my path from the Universe and had gifted me. ContinueContinue reading “From Pelagius to David Bowie”
Advent 4: Not yet and Now
December 24, 2023 Every seven years, the fourth Sunday of Advent lands on December 24 and coincides with Christmas Eve. What’s to be done, since Advent is a season of waiting and Santa Claus is coming tonight? For many Christians, it offers a day of church-going, marking the fourth Sunday of Advent and its purpleContinueContinue reading “Advent 4: Not yet and Now”
Advent One: A Story
December 2023 When I was a child, I was mesmerized by the Advent Season. Mesmerized is a powerful word, and completely accurate. I still see that sense of rapt wonder on the faces of children watching candlelight, and I hope it still shows on my own. Advent, which means coming, is the four-week period inContinueContinue reading “Advent One: A Story”
Reinventing Self
June 30, 2023 Some years ago, when I was active clergy and had been at my church for thirteen years, I found myself in a time of discernment about my future. A fellow clergy person with a thirty-year stay at his church suggested that the key to a long-term, fruitful ministry was to “reinvent” oneselfContinueContinue reading “Reinventing Self”
Spirit Reflections 