Good morning... Today is Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent, the 46 days before Easter Sunday. Christianity.com explains: "Lent is a 40-day season (not counting Sundays) marked by repentance, fasting, reflection, and ultimately celebration. The 40-day period represents Christ’s time of temptation in the wilderness, where he fasted and where Satan tempted him. Lent asks believers to [...]
Good afternoon... Never before have I felt compelled to share a second blog post on the same day. With email responses piling up from this morning's message, Praying for Olga, I offer us an intimate update from Ukraine. Throughout the day, I have heard from many of you who yearn to join our hearts in prayer on behalf [...]
Our Friday group gathered to discuss our next chapter in Paula D'Arcy's book Sacred Threshold: Crossing the Inner Barrier to Deeper Love. To begin our time together, we shared various prayer concerns. One woman has a dear friend, Olga, who lives in Ukraine with her two daughters. Olga had sent a telegram earlier in the day: "According to [...]
Good morning... Last Friday, we began our class with silence, a reading, and a prayer. Before I read aloud the heartfelt prayer below, I asked people to consider, "Which words capture your attention?" After our time of prayer, we introduced ourselves to one another for the first time by sharing the words grabbing us most, explaining why these [...]
Good morning... I was driving around in December's hustle, rushing to here before dashing to there. "Of course, there's a train," I texted the photo above to the person forced to wait as I was running late. A line of red taillights. Stopped by a standstill. Traffic mounting along with my anxiety, my frustration, my anger at myself. [...]
Good morning... "I am completely convinced that God is a fan of life's messy," I found myself texting a friend yesterday. "Think childbirth. Think artist's studio. Think crucifixion. We are the ones who crave neat, straight, controllable order." In the middle of the night my mind wanders to add to my list. Might God be in all of [...]
Good morning... Following the surface chatter of saying hello, catching up, settling in, we begin each class with few minutes of silence. Meeting outside to minimize COVID concerns has been marvelous this semester, just marvelous. The breeze picks up and dies down. The birds chit-chat then quiet down. An occasional loud truck lumbers by as we deepen down. [...]
Good morning... "Please stay with me on Monday," she texted our friend group from Sloan Kettering in New York City where their teenaged daughter will undergo surgery to remove her recurring cancer. "It will be a long 10 hours." Spirit to Spirit, from Atlanta to Idaho to NYC, the texts of our five friends came delightfully close. Love. [...]
Good morning... The sun set on three lives in three days in my own personal corner of the world. Friday, the middle school daughter of a middle school teacher at our school tragically died in the crash of a small engine plane. Saturday, a lifelong friend who was in our wedding finished his grueling battle with ALS. Sunday, [...]
Good morning... For me, the symbol above embodies the power of prayer. Sitting quietly in a corner of our home, this antique fire extinguisher holds lots of wild-haired curly-Q's and is coupled with a handheld vintage fireplace blower. "What," you might ask, "do these old objects have to do with prayer?" During our Friday morning class, I thought [...]
