“He also knew from his theological training that veterans needed the sacramental structure of penance and reconciliation — even if their faith was destroyed.”
Giving to her reminds me that I am a con-artist too. I may hide it better, but we are all at least a little bit dishonest about ourselves. It reminds me that I am a poor sinner, just like everybody else. I may not need money, but I am as needy and poor as anybody else, thank God.
“I never let go of the notion that a feeble human being could commune directly with the power behind all we see and know, like a surfer cascading across a wall of water pitched up along the shoreline by the fathomless ocean. “
In what ways can the Prayers of the People in your community of worship be refreshed? The work of crafting these prayers can be delightful. In itself it can prove to be an experience of prayer.
Seeing the dogs’ smiling faces would bring enough joy on its own. But counting dogs also reminds me it’s possible to see beauty and eternity anywhere and everywhere. So even when the three dogs’ driveway is empty, I look for beauty,,, That’s why counting dogs is part of my spiritual practice.
white crosses with a name and date set up on the shoulder of a busy highway, elaborate front yard arrangements of candles and stuffed animals, urban sidewalks dotted with candles and liquor bottles; these places, tributes to local death, are holy ground. But what do they mean, to those who pass by and to those who construct them? And what might the church learn from these interactive memorials?
Rituals are the lenses through which we see our emotional connections to each other, to a culture, and to a higher power. They are symbolic expressions of our most sacred values.
Religious rituals teach us to dance with God. For many Episcopalians, the shape of our Sunday rituals changed dramatically with the adoption of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. Holy Communion replaced Morning Prayer as the usual Sunday worship service.
In the first of a two-part series, Theo Hobson looks at the tensions between the rational and ritualistic traditions of liberal Christianity in