Giving is what we do best. It is the air into which we were born. It is the action that was designed into us before our birth. Giving is the way the world is. He makes no exceptions for any of us.

It’s been awhile since the muse moved me, but the blessing below comes just in time for tomorrow’s Winter Solstice. The promise of light will literally be fulfilled, both in lengthening daylight and in spirit light from the Christ. Both kinds are vital to human well-being, but Emmanuel’s Light is most enduring.

It’s been awhile since the muse moved me, but the blessing below comes just in time for tomorrow’s Winter Solstice. The promise of light will literally be fulfilled, both in lengthening daylight and in spirit light from the Christ. Both kinds are vital to human well-being, but Emmanuel’s Light is most enduring.

I share a disturbing yet truthful assessment of where we are in our society today. Tim Suttle’s and Stanley Hauerwas’ hyperbole may not be comfortable to hear or bear, yet such speech is necessary if we are to alertly resist the dark forces we face in these fractured times….if we are to model alternative ways of relating more akin to Jesus’ vision for humanity. We are created by God to be better, larger, more true and compassionate persons than much we witness on the public stage today. Give an ear, and may our hearts be open.

We live in a time when the unfathomable takes place…again and again. Now in Las Vegas…senseless violence and death. Who are we at war with? Ourselves? Who is the enemy who compels a man to take sixteen high powered weapons to his motel room, with another eighteen in his home? Something is loose in our society, in our national psyche, that aims for destruction.

There’s not much ‘gentleness’ in our public discourse these days. Despite the fact that Paul names ‘gentleness’ as one of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5, the quality seems in short supply…with some notable exceptions. Each of us knows someone to whom we’d attach this attractive characteristic.

Since we’ve been considering Jonah, a reluctant prophet in recent sermons, the following thoughts on ‘the prophet’ seem pertinent. Offered by Richard Rohr in his daily meditations, I lift them up because this vital Biblical role is relevant in our current times, and because we all get annoyed by the prophets’ work/word from time to time.

Blessed Labor Day! I was taken by a piece from the selected writings of Evelyn Underhill cited in a devotional resource I’m using. It’s about ‘God’s calling’, which, when we respond positively, becomes at least some of our life’s labor.

Hard to believe it’s June 8. Schools will soon be out. It was 48 degrees on Tuesday. Warmer today. Cool or warm, God is God and is for us. I was struck by this from Robert Corin Morris: “The God we worship not only fixed the borders of the sea and rested on the Sabbath but also voluntarily chose the confines of the flesh so that every one of its limitations might become the dwelling place and doorway to abundant life. The Infinite was confined in swaddling clothes and subjected to the same path of bridling and taming the wilderness of desire as we are.

I just came across this blog and think it’s fitting to share with you all. The Sacrament of Holy Communion is such that it grows on us, or we grow into a fuller grasp of what it means over time. It’s like how we grow into the meaning of our baptism for all our days on earth following Jesus (and maybe we keep growing into eternity.)