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A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing
https://bookstore.upperroom.org/Products/1921/a-family-like-mine.aspxWhom Shall I Fear: Urgent Questions for Christians in an Age of Violence
https://www.amazon.com/Whom-Shall-Fear-Questions-Christians/dp/0835819671-
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Category Archives: other words
Halfway
On the sixth day, halfway through Christmas, with the wholesomeness of God’s love lying in a manger and the heartlessness of Herod running riot in the streets; with God’s Incarnate One being prepared for his first wound, and his mother slowly healing, but her catching her heart in her mouth each time he sighs; on the sixth day, Joseph half-turns back, forgetting to pack up the bread he had picked up before the baby cried, his heart halfway to heaven and his spirit halfway to madness with the wonder of it all. Continue reading
Posted in meditation
Tagged confession, holy family, Incarnation, magi, nativity, sixth day of Christmas
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God gets maternal anxiety
My friend and my mentor each touched upon that near-fatal intersection of parenting and perfectionism that will plague me with anxiety until the kingdom come. Does God, that perfect Parent, suffer anxiety? Continue reading
Posted in meditation, other words, spiritual autobiography
Tagged anxiety, clergy women, Embodied, Lee Ann Pomrenke, motherhood
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Naming the idols
Some are easy to spot, sporting colourful plumage;
they make fast promises they cannot keep. Continue reading
Posted in Holy Days, lectionary reflection, meditation, poetry, prayer
Tagged idols, Lent
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Words matter
Jesus does not want us less than whole. He does not want our bodies abused, nor for our relationships to become a prison or a torment. The instructions he gives us, time and again, are to love God and to love one another; anything more is hyperbole; anything less is parody. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, liturgy, other words, sermon
Tagged expansive language, Jesus, John Keble, Matthew 5:21-37, poetry, R.S. Thomas, Year A Epiphany 6
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prayer incarnate
How did you pray, body and breath, those wilderness days beneath stars that made promises, sand through your hands counting moments since creation, each grain an erosion of the whole; how did you pray, body and spirit sticky with honey … Continue reading
Posted in meditation, poetry, prayer
Tagged desert, Incarnation, Jesus, prayer, wildnerness
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Book Review: Dessert First – Preparing for Death while Savoring Life, by J. Dana Trent
So why does a book about death and grieving have such an odd title? Death is coming for each of us, so we might as well embrace our mortal life and enjoy it, grief and all, with all of its sweetness, tartness, and saltiness. Continue reading
Posted in book review
Tagged chaplaincy, death, funeral, grief, J. Dana Trent, life, memoir, ritual, theology
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Book Review: Made to Move, by Wendy LeBolt
Have you ever heard of a Kinesthetic Christian? Neither had I, until Wendy LeBolt sent me a copy of her book to review. Made to Move: Knowing and Loving God Through Our Bodies is LeBolt’s guide to loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength – without making half of them metaphorical. Continue reading
Posted in book review
Tagged exercise, kinesthetic Christianity, prayer, Upper Room Books, Wendy LeBolt
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Revealed, by Angela D. Schaffner
Dr Schaffner’s psychological insights guide her readers through a journey into a Bible which does not lecture, chide, nor always even guide us so much as hold up a mirror to our own lives and relationships, inviting God into those reflections, and recognizing where God’s grace is already at work within us. Continue reading
Posted in book review, story
Tagged Angela D. Schaffner, Bible, psychology, Revealed, spiritual growth, Upper Room Books
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Book Review: Outlandish, by Derek Penwell
I appreciated the extended argument for the use of sarcasm as a discipleship tool. Skewering broods of vipers, after all, is quite biblical. Continue reading
Unquiet centre
not the absence of sound but
footprints on the ceiling and
the waltz of a three-legged cat Continue reading
Posted in meditation, poetry, prayer
Tagged centering prayer, Genesis 1, silence, unquiet
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