Imagine taking everything out of your kitchen and putting it someplace else in your house. We recently did this because we needed to replace our kitchen cabinets and it was eye-opening. This will probably come as no surprise but we had no idea what we had hidden in all of those spaces. We had expiredContinue reading “Giving up stuff for Lent”
Tag Archives: Contemplative Prayer
The Power of Music
We are visiting grandchildren. I stayed home with the nine-year-old and the two-year-old while everyone else went to baseball practice. Our job was to clean up the kitchen. As you can imagine, this is not a popular job and there were a lot of dirty dishes from the eight people who had just had dinner.Continue reading “The Power of Music”
Lament
My favorite book of the Bible is the Psalms for good reason. This ancient poetry expresses every human emotion and is especially good for the times when all you want to do is cry. The pictures coming out of Ukraine are unthinkable. A woman’s hospital bombed. Pregnant women about to give birth injured. How canContinue reading “Lament”
An Unexpected Gift
I went out for a run this morning in a strange city. There is a beautiful walkway next to a river which was pretty much deserted in the early morning except for people setting up tables and chairs outside of their restaurants. I was struggling with the heat and humidity and the fact that IContinue reading “An Unexpected Gift”
Temptation
Matthew 4.3: The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ All of us have received a “dare” to do something we know is wrong. I’m more aware of these temptations during lent. I grew up in the era of giving up chocolateContinue reading “Temptation”
Matthew 25:35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
Seeing the pictures of the Ukrainian refugees on the Polish border is heartbreaking. The families with just a suitcase totally reliant on strangers for food and shelter. It’s cold in Poland. Some people just wanted a chair to sit and rest. They don’t know where they are going or how they are going to getContinue reading “Matthew 25:35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,”
Maker of Heaven and Earth
There is something special about the night sky even when you can’t see the stars. It seems immense, unknowable, and deep. People ask me why I believe in God. How can you know there is a God? They ask me. They want me to give them proof. I read Aquinas in seminary and studied hisContinue reading “Maker of Heaven and Earth”
Do you believe in God, the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is the pilot light of our spiritual lives. It’s the fire that burns inside of us prompting us to pray, to seek out God, to figure out how to be. We feed the Holy Spirit when we attend church, when we answer the call to pray, and when we take action toContinue reading “Do you believe in God, the Holy Spirit?”
Do you believe in God, the Father?
This is the first question of the Baptismal Covenant. It seems like a simple question but I want to give a more complicated answer. I believe in a creative energy that I call Love with a capital L. This Love is what created the universe and keeps calling us to love one another and ourselves.Continue reading “Do you believe in God, the Father?”
Repent, Reconciliation, Reasses
Lent is an opportunity to repent, reconcile, and reassess our lives. It’s a process we can use to get ourselves back on track. So each year, I take some time to pause and look at what I want to change about my life. I ask myself, what is working well and what is not? IContinue reading “Repent, Reconciliation, Reasses”
Contemplative Knitting 