Year: 2020

“I get angry, gossip and manipulate until I catch myself at it and stop. It is with struggle that I give up my grudges and ask God to forgive the grudges God could carry against me.  I am only now, at age 68, beginning to see that noticing beauty, joy, and gratitude is seeing Christ present in the world.”

“Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek, but not to be a total doormat either.  We are to treat others as our neighbors, whether they are residents or aliens in our land. We are to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoners, care for the ill, children, and elderly, and to follow God’s laws. If we encounter evildoing, we are to do our best to counter it and remove it, returning ourselves and the land to righteousness under God.”

“These are two extremes, between which lie all the ways that God is revealed in our lives. At work, with friends, doing various kinds of labor, in nature, in the deep sorrows and joys of our lives—in each one God reveals himself to us. We have only to stop for a moment and raise our heads, to open our hearts to this moment, to see his revelation.”

“O God, You cover the earth in snow like a blanket:
cover us with your wing as the storms pass,
both within and without.
The earth rests beneath the snow,
gathering itself to burst forth in new life:
enliven our spirits to take up our work
in your kingdom…”

“At the time, and as a new priest still youngish (any Episcopal priest under fifty is considered “young”), I watched Laura suffer and wonder about how a person in pain or suffering engages spiritually. Centering prayer, meditation, the Daily Office, reading Scripture, praying for others? What might one do to fortify the soul against the body’s attack? What might God ask of the person whose task in life has been reduced to pulling one additional tug of breath into the lungs? Is spirituality possible? Will engaging the spirit ease suffering?”