Category: Speaking to the Soul

“Teach me patience, Lord, 
as the sun and the water nourish the ground
as the roots take hold in the darkness.”

“The symbol of the lion for Mark comes from its Gospel opening, describing John the Baptist as the voice of a messenger preparing the way, ‘the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,’ urgently.”

“The examination of your life, and, hopefully, sharing your shortcomings with another trusted person can do wonders for the soul.  In humility we accept our place in the ranks of other flawed humans.  This allows us a larger and more flexible compassion.”

“We often ponder stories in the Bible telling of cruelty, rape, murder, betrayal, and mass killing. How did such stories appear in this book we are asked to revere and study? What are we supposed to learn from them when we also read that we are not to kill, steal, etc.?”

““These are strange days!”
yells someone in the crowd.
I can assure you, friend,
that no one has had a stranger day than me.”

“In peace, we pray to You, Lord Christ,
our hearts and faces upturned and open to your glory.
Holy One, You are our shepherd…”

“And I do. Praise spills from this invocation into my soul like water from a pitcher into a glass. The Venite. The Jubilate. A Psalm. Routine, unextraordinary, but this opening praise is marvelously settling.”

“When you pray, move your feet.
One foot after another
meeting fellow pilgrims, journeying together.”

“So much gardening activity happens on our knees, in the position of prayer and supplication. I kneel to weed, plant and harvest and often find myself meditating and praying. If I am troubled by some seemingly insurmountable problem, there is no better place to thrash it out than kneeling in the garden. If I am irritable or depressed, there is no better therapy than weeding.”

“Most importantly, God is love.  Learning what that means is a life-long study.  It isn’t warm feelings and the removal of stumbling blocks from our paths.  It is a profound showing up for the essence of who we are.”