Blog Archive
Contemplation in Action – Community – Prayer – Listening – Spiritual Direction – Nature
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Proximity and Hope
by Mary Van Balen A movie or book can be transforming. For Black History Month, I’m sharing an experience with both. In January, I attended a movie with friends: Just Mercy. Based on the book Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, written by Bryan Stevenson and published in 2014, the movie centers around…
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Reflection on Contemplation and Race: A Letter
By Fay C. Acker When I was a child, I used to sit in the living room in a little alcove formed by the piano and the television, writing letters to God. I gave the letters to my mother, quite sure they would be mailed, received, and read with all my questions: “God, where do…
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Center Down: Prayer in the Struggle for Justice
Today’s blog is by Jessie Smith “How good it is to center down! To sit quietly and see one’s self pass by!” — “How Good To Center Down,” Howard Thurman Spiritual nurture: essential and pragmatic Walking the three or four blocks to Capitol Hill from Union Station week after week takes its toll. For the…
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Evening with the Senator
Today’s blog post is by Patience Robbins I recently had the wonderful opportunity to spend an evening with Senator Tim Kaine (VA) at the Shalem office. It was a time of deep inspiration and sharing of light and hope. Because of a personal friendship with a member of the Shalem Board, Senator Kaine joined 25…
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Reimagining Confession As Noticing
Confession has always been a part of the Christian tradition of spiritual deepening. As such, it has all too often been understood within a dynamic of payment due, penance to be done, conditional forgiveness, substitutionary Christology. No doubt for many, a deepening of their spiritual lives and even a re-formation of the direction of their…
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Advent Listening
Today’s blog is by Mary van Balen I am poring through Scripture readings and books while preparing for an Advent retreat, revisiting favorite writings and discovering new ones. As readers do, I filter the words through my current state of mind, faith, and being. A passage that held deep meaning five years ago provides little…