“Hope has to come up out of you … To find something worth hoping for is a very good place to start. There are things worth hoping for, there are good people, this is still a very beautiful world.” ~Wendell Berry ~~~ “Long ago,” the book of Hebrews begins, “long ago God spoke to our …
Category: Poetry
Poetry can help us get in touch with the mysteries, ambiguities, and deep longings of our souls.
For the Good of All
For the Good of All – July 3, 2016 Fourth Presbyterian Church Galatians 6:1-10 (NRSV) Our second reading today comes from Paul’s letter to the Galatian Churches. It’s an emotional and rhetorical letter as Paul is defending his honor and explaining his teachings to a community that has been infiltrated, so to speak, by teachers …
Spiritual Practice@Home :: Be Kind
Not merely because Henry James said there were but four rules of life— be kind be kind be kind be kind— but because it’s good for the soul, and, what’s more, for others; it may be that kindness is our best audition for a worthier world, and, despite the vagueness and uncertainty of its recompense, …
Spiritual Practice@Home :: “Kiss the Ground”
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. Jelaluddin Rumi – 13th century mystic As spring finally, …
Passages
Yesterday was my first day as the pastor at St. James Presbyterian Church, and this Sunday will be the first day I preach there in that capacity. So I’ve been reflecting on the concept of passages, how we pass through to new places and new stages and even new ways of being throughout our lives. …