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Be Still and Know that I am God
by Kathleen Moloney-Tarr On this second day of a silent retreat, alone in the North Carolina mountains, a line circles over and over in my mind. “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) This becomes the prayer of my day. As the words turn inside my head, they become a ribbon of comfort, an invitation to…
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A Case of the Mondays
by Amy Cole I woke up this morning with “A Case of the Mondays,” that morose condition of starting the day in a state of dread and disgust at the long list of things which must be done, appointments and commitments too long to list and too late to cancel. (Surely I could cancel them, but I don’t feel…
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And It Rained
by Rod Dugliss Reflections from Shalem’s West Coast Regional Gathering When I awoke early at Mercy Center to meet with the Shalem staff for the West Coast Regional Gathering final set up, I looked out my window to catch a huge, ivory-bright, full moon setting, briefly visible through a rift in roiling, dark clouds. After breakfast, fellow staff…
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The Congregation as a Place of Spiritual Formation
by Robert Duggan We Americans like to take care of things neatly and efficiently, preferably from a prepackaged solution that can get quick results with a minimum of hassle. Our cultural bias towards action and our get-the-job-done outlook impacts our approach to spiritual formation as much as it does a variety of other areas of life. Communities or individuals who…
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The Holy in the Ordinary
by Ann Siddall It is early morning at Stillpoint Spirituality Centre in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia. A cool breeze stirs the gum trees, the kookaburras are laughing joyously, and the earth is fragrant after the first soaking rain for three months. As I set up for a small retreat, check the diary, and respond to e-mails, a…
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Present Moment Ponderings
by Martha Campbell I awakened from sleep early this morning with a deep awareness: I am immersed in a world, a culture, a life situation in the throes of change. Claiming the anxiety I feel as my truth, I open to prayer. I acknowledge that, everywhere I turn, I see a dying process at work. Structures that I thought…