Some years ago I embarked on a long retreat with a new spiritual director, and at our first session he asked me how and how often I pray. Seems like a reasonable question for a spiritual director to ask, but somehow it made me feel a bit like I do when the dentist asks me how often I … Read the rest
Continue reading "Impressed with Prayer" »Category: Uncategorized
The Incarnational “Ick” Factor
A few years ago an insurance company ran
a television ad touting how their products save money. My husband John and I don’t watch a lot of TV at home—we kind of got out of the habit when we lived in
Nicaragua—so its not often that I actually know what the popular commercials are. But this one captured … Read the rest
Deep Hunger & True Treasure
There’s a book about Jesuit prayer practice—a personal favorite—called “Sleeping with Bread.” It takes its title from a WWII era story, when thousands of children were orphaned and left to starve. The fortunate ones were rescued and placed in refugee camps where they received food and good care. But still, many of these children could … Read the rest
Continue reading "Deep Hunger & True Treasure" »Loving the Questions
“Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart, and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live … Read the rest
Continue reading "Loving the Questions" »Slaying the Giant Among Us
Last week I was in northern Michigan visiting an old friend who lives in Leelanau County, which is at the tip of a peninsula extending into Lake Michigan alongside Grand Traverse Bay. Its really beautiful country, and among its many charmsare miles of sandy beaches where amateur geologists search out a kind of fossilized corral known as petosky … Read the rest
Think About These Things. Really.
Jeremiah 1:4-9
Psalm 84
Philippians 4:4-9
Matt. 9:35-38
And so, deacons and priests in waiting, the day has come. The day you dreamed of, worked hard for, maybe ran even harder from; the day you worried about and rejoiced in. In a few Spirit-filled minutes you will take vows that nobody can possibly fulfill but for the grace of our … Read the rest
Continue reading "Think About These Things. Really." »Telling the Truthiness
Did you know that “truthiness” was Merriam Webster’s “word of the year” for 2006? Various Internet sources define “truthiness” as an argument or assertion that claims to be true, without regard to evidence. Faux newscaster Stephen Colbert coined the word in the pilot episode of his political satire The Colbert Report, and the truth became—well—history.
Which leads me … Read the rest
Continue reading "Telling the Truthiness" »Wild Child, Welcome!
Grace Cathedral Choral Evensong
I bring you greetings on behalf of Bishop Marc Andrus. And together with him, I give thanks for the 100-plus year ministry of St. Dorothy’s Rest. My thanks are professional—I have the pleasure of working with Katie Evenbeck and her outstanding team—and also personal. Let me start with the latter. I … Read the rest
James & John Call Shotgun
When my two sons were young and we’d travel anywhere by car, they’d race to the driver’s side door calling “shotgun” at the top of their lungs. Honestly, I’m not really sure what the value of sitting in that front seat was. Because actually when they got a little older—and especially when their friends were in the car—nobody wanted to … Read the rest
Continue reading "James & John Call Shotgun" »Become What You Are
“I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the
observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance;
by prayer, fasting, and self-denia
l; and by reading and
meditating on God’s holy Word.” Did y’all happen to hear that exhortation on Ash Wednesday last week? How’s all the prayer, fasting and self-denial going for you?
On the … Read the rest
Continue reading "Become What You Are" »