Articles on Prayer
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Iona: A Pilgrimage in Image and Word
Photo blog by Susan Etherton 1) Everywhere you go there is a secret room. To discover it, you must knock on walls… and listen for the echo that portends the secret passage. Everywhere has a secret room. You must find your own, in a small chapel, a tiny café, a quiet park, the pew where…
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Glimpsing God in the Dark Night
Article by Margaret Benefiel (December 2017 eNews) When 20 young contemplative leaders gathered at the beautiful St. Benedict’s Monastery nestled in the mountains of Snowmass, Colorado with Tilden Edwards, Thomas Keating, Richard Rohr, and Laurence Freeman for five days in August, one of the first themes that surfaced was societal impasse. In the midst of…
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Spiritual Companions across the Centuries
Today’s post is by Margaret Benefiel “Rebuild my church.” God used these words from Francis of Assisi’s story to speak to me as I sat in prayer with two spiritual companions in Greensboro, North Carolina, after a heartbreaking disillusionment. I had left a job that I had thought was my dream job, my dream shattered.…
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Listen to the Mockingbird
Today’s post is by Rose Mary Dougherty Recently, I have been struck by the song of the mockingbird. I have one (the same one every day, I think) that sits in a tree in my backyard, picking up the song of other birds and singing all evening long. I noticed that even when my neighbor…
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The Isle of Iona: Definitely a Special Place
Today’s post is by Leah Rampy “I’ve heard it called a ‘thin place,’” he told me. “I’m not sure that I believe that, so I want to see for myself.” It sounded to my ears as if he’d laid down a challenge—to me, or the island, I wasn’t sure which. Coming from someone I respect,…
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A Simple Path to Follow
Today’s post is by Nancy Flinchbaugh Ancients created labyrinths thousands of years ago, and more recently, labyrinths again surfaced to help center and orient pilgrims on their life path. In the middle ages, labyrinths were laid in stone into the floors of cathedrals in Europe. The faithful, who couldn’t afford a journey to the holy land,…