Category: Speaking to the Soul

“Help us to settle into the darkness so we can see your light breaking through.”

“There is one point in common. Both Carnival and Lent are about giving the power and agency to the powerless.”

“Psalm 148 is one of my favorites and is one that both begins and ends with the word “Hallelujah!” with an exclamation point. It’s meant to be emphasized and to be shouted joyfully, not mumbled or glossed over.”

“When we come to Ash Wednesday, we have ashes on our foreheads; then we come to the annual problem: what to do for the rest of the day. Jesus told us to beware of practicing our piety before others.”

“’Being perfect’ as it is used here, means more about trying to be more like God, than it means to engage the impossible task of being flawless.”

“Sophia, Holy Wisdom says in today’s reading from the Proverbs, ‘Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.  Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.’”

“If I get too distracted I’ll miss it, the prayers of joyful noises. The prayers of feeling a beat and moving bodies without a care of how we look.”

“Jesus can reach us and banish discord and evil, but we have to be open to Scripture and to the breath of the Holy Spirit. We need to practice Jesus’ teaching. We need to live in faith and trust each other, to turn our lives around, to open our hearts, to renew ourselves in these teachings, and offer what we learn with each other.”

“The tentacles of my world, my lived ethic, my choices, reach deeply into those living in my sphere – my family, friends, church, the nation and the world. And vice versa.”