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A Sabbath Heart
More and more people have become aware of the need for sabbath today, even if they don’t know how to bring it into the normal rhythm of their complicated lives. We see signs of people’s desire for a more receptive quality of time in the increasing popularity of retreats and meditation practices. However, the attempts…
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Lectio Divina
Literally “Divine Reading” You can use these steps for praying with scripture, selecting a passage that seems right for you. Read the Word (Lectio) Read the passage slowly, stopping when a word or phrase “shimmers” (stands out, catches your attention), becoming a transparency of God for you. The intention is not to get to the…
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Rediscovering a Desire for God
Like a gentle diagnostician/professor, Frank Griswold, former presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, spoke to clergy on Maundy Thursday morning. His words caught my heart. Beginning with the passage from the Revelation of John, chapter two, Griswold quoted the words of praise for those who work so hard in the church: “I know what you…
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Contemplative Possibilities in Corporate Worship/Liturgy
Here are a few suggestions that can help open the way for people’s first-hand presence in the Presence during a Sunday or other time of corporate worship. These include selected (sometimes modified) excerpts from the section on Liturgy in chapter four of my new book, Embracing the Call to Spiritual Depth (Paulist Press 2010), followed…
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The Search for Our True Self
We are all looking for an immortal diamond: something utterly reliable, something loyal and true, something we can always depend on, something unforgettable and shining. There is an invitation and an offer…from John’s very short Second Letter, when he writes: “There is a truth that lives within us that will be with us forever” (2…
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Peace in the Midst of Uncertainty
“no creature that is made that can know how much and how sweetly and how tenderly our Creator loves us” — Julian of Norwich Given the daunting economic, social, political, and religious challenges of today and the fierce divisions and demeaning actions sometimes accompanying these challenges, this seems to be a good time to remember…