Category: Speaking to the Soul

“Even if I physically back away from those who want to show their love for me as I did for Classy when I was trying to get him to let me pet him, it’s hard to back away from God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit sometimes, especially as they have ways of being persistent and loving during the process. Like a cat, I may go and try to hide under the bed or in the closet or even outside somewhere, but they always find me and lure me out and one step closer.  Slowly the trust is rebuilt, and all is well.”

“The kingdom of heaven is not the marketplace. God does not assign value to the unit of labor or the output or the work product. God values the worker.”

“Woven within these confessional phrases are also converse actions we can take in dedicating ourselves anew to walking in the Way of Jesus. In other words, the prayer of confession also implies a prayer of dedication and discipleship. What we confess leads us to know what we can do in service to Christ. Because sin is a sundering of relationship, the path to atonement calls us to try to repair and restore our relationship with God and each other.”

“I hear the lapping of waves against the rocks and the stillness invites me closer with her words: All will be well, all will be well, all manner of things will be well.”

“We pick up our cross each time, and become the sons and daughters of our Abba, and one with Christ Jesus. The Holy Cross is within us. And so we venerate the Cross, as each act of adoration and service in Jesus’ name is our unification with Jesus’ death. And his Resurrection. And ours.”

“I have learned that my most authentic self will never be beyond God’s protective reach.  But, then, I have a different understanding of other people than I did when I was four.  I have learned that nobody is on the wrong side; God cherishes all and longs for each.”

“Thinking about the bumper sticker, America truly needs prayer these days.  Instead of becoming more polarized, the citizens of this nation need to come together to help one another through the tough times we encounter every day. Fires, floods, heat, sickness, death, homelessness, violence, supremacy, divisiveness, fear, and anxiety are situations affecting millions every day, and, whether specifically called out by those names in the Prayer Book or even the Bible, Jesus encouraged us to pray and to love our neighbor, which sums it all up rather nicely. It’s impossible to wish ill on your neighbor and love them at the same time. So perhaps in addition to prayers for the nation and its leaders, victims, and situations of peril, we should pray for our country and its problems.”

“We often talk about someone having “the patience of Job,” but as we see in our first reading today, Job was anything BUT patient in laying out the case for his innocence to the Almighty.”

“Today is the pause before the plunge that sweeps over those who remember and mourn. I wonder about how we honor the memory of those who gave their lives for others, and how we remember the messages of love as well as the images of destruction from that day.”