Category: Speaking to the Soul

“I guess I sometimes see God as a kind of convenience store, open when I need something and find that I can get it at the one place in town that’s open at that time of day or night.”

“The photo above is of the “thinnest place” on my pilgrimage…the ruins at Clonmacnoise, Ireland.  I was humbled to have had the opportunity to celebrate a midweek Eucharist there with our pilgrimage group.  About midway through the celebration, it suddenly dawned on me that what I was doing, had been done roughly 1500 years before me.”

“But the very demons who drive you have another side. They alone can peer into the depths. The wounds that we breathe into – that we really allow to have their say – will guide us beyond social conventions and constraints to power a profound, authentic creativity and spiritual understanding.”

Certainly, I covet sleep. But I am beginning to find that I cannot begrudge these stolen moments of silent prayer, just Jesus and me, in the desert of the night.

“She runs down the hallway and bursts into rooms. Her younger brother always trailing behind her happy to be by her side. They make up their own rules running back and forth and counting to ten every few minutes.”

“It isn’t until the woman has washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair that Jesus speaks up about his host’s neglect, and then only after the woman had been disgraced by her so-called betters. Suddenly both Jesus, the dishonored dinner guest, and the woman, the dishonored sinner, are on the same level.”

“I find myself in a holding pattern, one I suspect to be of God’s making, and I would like to talk to God about it. God must know more than s/he is letting on.”

“God must have had a good time creating birds and their different songs, and, come to think of it, dolphins and whales with their own songs, so different from those of the birds. Each animal and bird has its particular sound or song.  It is kind of amusing to think of God, especially the stern, judging God that many of us were taught about, having fun creating things and then picking out songs and sounds for each of them.”

“Weekly worship and intentional quiet time can both provide a meaningful pause in the rushing about that everyday life can encourage. Those pauses can give me space to be intentional about how I am choosing to spend my time doing and if those choices are sustainable.”