Julia McCray-Goldsmith, Author at LiftUpYourHearts

The Commissioning of the Wounded

Poor Thomas. He’s gotten such a bad name for nothing more than asking for reasonable verification. We might think of him as the Gospel’s first empirical scientist, and yet he’s come to be known as the doubter. That’s because subheadings in the Bible—added rather recently by translators and publishers—are interpretive. For good or ill, they … Read the rest

Tales from the Tomb

Easter Vigil 2019
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I do not long for resurrection. I am generally much more comfortable with death staying in its predictable tomb. And I’m pretty sure that same sentiment was true of the spice-bearing women who came to anoint the body of Jesus on a Sunday morning so very many years ago. They knew what to do … Read the rest

The Discipline of Deeper Desire

Lent 2C
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What do you really desire? I confess that I often don’t know. And even when I think I do know what I want, it turns out to be something quite unholy like a pint of Salt & Straw ice cream. So I find myself saying, like the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans, … Read the rest

Why Not Become Fire?

Ash Wednesday
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Our own Honorary Canon Jim Bethell recently told me a story about visiting a crematorium and peering through the peephole that allowed him to see a human body in the process of becoming ash. His main takeaway was surprise. The body was luminous, he said. The process seemed to generate more of a glow than … Read the rest

Eye to Eye

Epiphany 6C

On Thursday I posted a complaint on social media that I was late in preparing my sermon. When I’m preaching I try really hard to be ready before my husband John comes home from San Francisco, because I like to save weekends for him. But this wasn’t that kind of week—everything seemed to take more time … Read the rest

Ignatian Scriptural Contemplation

Choose a Gospel passage to pray. Some ideas—

Luke 1:26-38 (annunciation, perhaps if you are wondering about a call)

Luke 1:39-45 (visitation, perhaps if you are thinking about a friendship)

Luke 2:41-51 (Jesus in the Temple, perhaps if you are thinking about a child)

Luke 4:16-30 (Jesus at the Synagogue in Nazareth, being true to yourself)

Luke 5:1-11 (Jesus calls … Read the rest

Light for the Journey

The Epiphany
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If you’ve been around Trinity for a while, you may already know that my husband John and I served for seven years as missionaries in Central America and the Caribbean when we were newly married. Por eso somos hablahispanos. That’s why we’re both Spanish speakers. What you may not know is that our two sons … Read the rest

Ignatian Scriptural Composition

Choose a Gospel passage to pray—

Luke 1:26-38 (annunciation, perhaps if you are wondering about a call)

Luke 1:39-45 (visitation, perhaps if you are thinking about a friendship)

Luke 2:41-51 (Jesus in the Temple, perhaps if you are thinking about a child)

Luke 4:16-30 (Jesus at the Synagogue in Nazareth, being true to yourself)

Luke 5:1-11 (Jesus calls the first … Read the rest

An Ignatian Examen

One way to pray is to look for God’s presence in the “sacred text” that is your own daily life. More than 400 years ago, St. Ignatius of Loyola encouraged prayer-filled mindfulness through what has come to be called called the Daily Examen. The Examen is a method of prayerful reflection on the events of the day in order to … Read the rest

The Upward Fall

The story says fall, and I fall to my knees

onto streets paved with refuse and waste;

breathing fumes of the fuel that the highway consumes

I fall with a gasp to my knees.

Underneath paved domain slumbers dust from the stars-

of this I am fashioned and made;

but the ground of my standing is holy, corrupt-

I … Read the rest