Today, we are each standing at the entry of the labyrinth of Easter, a Lenten pilgrimage of twists and turns before we reach the center, Easter Sunday. There is a rich history of Christians embarking on pilgrimages to encounter God. In our own time, over 300 million people set out
Continue ReadingOn this week of Valentine's Day cards, chocolate hearts, and red roses, stop for a minute and ask yourself honestly the question, "How well am I loving?" Every great story, whether penned in the eloquent words of a poet or lived inside the very breaths of a human being, are marked by love.
Continue ReadingIt is hard not to be moved by the biblical passage from Genesis where God creates the first human being. We are told that God breathed his spirit, the very breath of life, into his first masterpiece of creation, man. To commemorate Adam's holy birthright, God plants for him a
Continue ReadingI found these words, I am starting to like my soul, scribbled in crayon on a sticky note and pinned to my refrigerator recently by a friend. Like a spark they have ignited a curiosity in me to ponder what it means to like one's soul. One of the perks
Continue ReadingIn the spirit of Hope for this New Year of 2013, I offer you a story I penned for a healing service at my church. Rediscovering it over the Christmas holidays, I realized that it was a poignant way for each one of us to embark on our journey through
Continue ReadingGerard van Honthhorst, Adoration of the Shepherds, December 25, 1622 There is a beautiful story told every Christmas in the forests of Provence in southern France. It’s about four shepherds who journey to Bethlehem to see the baby Jésu. One brought eggs, another a baguette and fresh cheese, the third brought wine
Continue ReadingOne of my favorite Christmas treasures is my Nativity scene of French santons. Santons, translated as "little saints," are small, hand-painted terra-cotta figurines that come from the Provence region of France. The santons of Provence took their inspiration from the first living Nativity scene created in 1223 by St. Francis
Continue ReadingIs it all sewn up-my life? Is it at this point so predictable, so orderly, so neat, so arranged, so right, that I don't have time or space for listening for
Continue ReadingI have to admit I am more gypsy than monk when it comes to the practice of prayer. I have been known to kneel, light a candle, anoint with holy water, read the psalms, finger the rosary, recite the Lord’s Prayer, walk in the woods in silence, fall asleep mid-phrase,
Continue ReadingIn my soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church where I kneel. Prayers should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist. In my soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church that dissolves, that dissolves in God.
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