My essential self is completely content. My essential self is wholly holy. My essential self is undividedly Divine. My essential self is contentedly complete. My essential self is Love, as God is Love. My essential self is who I truly am. I truly am. I am. Text and image ©... Continue reading

There were five of them, gathering over drinks-- their first happy hour in over a year. "It's so good to be together again," said Hope. She raised her glass: "To the end of the pandemic." "Here, here," said all, lifting their glasses. "And to friendship," said Grace. "I've missed you... Continue reading

If I learn to suffer well, I won't make others suffer. Jesus shows us how to suffer, to embrace the pain of being human. Thus the beauty of the incarnation. If you learn the art of suffering well, those around you will suffer less. This is not to discount the... Continue reading

Your essential self (core self, inner oasis of wholeness, peace, oneness with the Holy) is necessarily small, naked, poor. Live, breathe, be from that self and know true freedom; you have all you need, always. The less self, the less need to defend, coddle, protect, the less need for anger,... Continue reading

Augustine-- the great Christian philosopher, theologian and Church father-- called the Bible: a book of mysteries. And so it is. We are often more comfortable without the mystery, preferring our scripture interpretation easy, straightforward and neatly packaged, as in, "Here's what it means, and that's all it means." But scripture... Continue reading

The risen Christ remains a wounded Christ, emerging from the tomb as something other-- not a human as we know humans-- able to appear/disappear at will, to walk through closed doors, to be hidden even though present, to be present even though hidden. But in it all, Christ remains wounded,... Continue reading

Who am I, really? Does one ever know? ambler banterer conjurer (perhaps) dispenser embellisher forager (yes) gatherer harvester interpreter (quite likely) jabberer kick-starter lingerer (seems so) mutterer nourisher outlier (could be) pilferer quencher relinquisher (yup) slumberer trespasser unclencher (for sure) voyager wonderer xoriflender* (indeed) yawner zip-a-dee-doo-dah-er (who knew?) There, I've... Continue reading

To find trust, I must be willing to trust. To find love, I must be willing to love. To be held, I must be willing to weep. To be awash in the Light, I must be willing to open my eyes. To find faith, I must be willing to surrender.... Continue reading

In his book, Finnegan's Wake, Irish author James Joyce describes Christianity this way: Here comes everybody! It would be hard to find a more concise, cogent summary of what we, the Church, are truly about: Here comes everybody! Everybody. Every single, frickin' body. All, without exclusion. All, without exception. Bodies... Continue reading

And so, heaven packages up a chubby little boy named Dirk and sends him to earth: a gift to the world. He is sent with a simple task: make it a better place; bring the reign of God. He keeps trying, hoping to leave behind: more kindness than cruelty, more... Continue reading

Are you familiar with the term liminal? It comes from the Latin word for threshold. Liminal spaces are those where the boundary between this world and the next, between the physical and spiritual is particularly thin, and one wonders-- appropriately-- if the boundary may, in fact, not exist at all.... Continue reading

Racism is both a mental illness and a moral illness. We are all infected. To the extent we harbor unexamined beliefs about people of color, judgments about people of color, an unwillingness to listen to people of color, the fear of developing relationships with people of color, even the slightest... Continue reading

A friend tells me, "In your home, you need to create a sacred space, a space that you reserve for spiritual moments." And I thought, Oh, my dear, there is no space in our home that is not sacred space, no space without its spiritual moments, for there is no... Continue reading

Looking for God? Go deeper. Have courage and go deeper, turn inward. To face your own brokenness is to find God. To face your own brokenness-- damage, pain, grief, loneliness, insecurity-- is to find God. Recall Jesus' parable of the publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14): Who encountered God? Was... Continue reading

Looking for God? There is good news: God is here and everywhere, hidden in this leaf, this lamppost, the homeless man holding his tattered cardboard sign, the soup warming on your stove, the laughter of your child, your own tears. God hidden, here and everywhere. God is here and everywhere,... Continue reading

Yes, if you are keeping track, yesterday was the fifth day of Christmas, and, as the often annoying song goes: On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me five gold rings... and so on. By now I have, by my count, not only five gold rings,... Continue reading

The long-awaited has begun: see the Greyhound gliding into the terminal? the plane parking at the gate? the ship arriving at the dock? the Winnebago pulling into the driveway? God approaches, encroaches-- Emmanuel, God with us, in us, through us, for us. Messy birth has begun: did you know you... Continue reading

I showered this morning and was bathed in grace. I ate my bowl of cereal and was fed by grace. I watched the morning news and was challenged by grace. I got dressed after breakfast and was clothed with grace. I stood outside, face up to the falling snow, my... Continue reading

"Here, let me cut you a thick slice," she said, flourishing the knife like a conductor leading Beethoven's 5th. "There," she said, loading it onto my plate. "One large slab of the Bread of Life." It came warm from the oven, steaming tendrils rising like incense, and smelled, as one... Continue reading

It was the end of my first day in heaven. We stood together, Sophia and I, watching a most brilliant sunset filled with colors I'd never seen. "I have a question," I said. "Just the one?" she replied, laughing. "For now, yes." I paused before continuing-- so much of the... Continue reading

Ah, perspective. I've been reading lately about our universe, and what we know of our universe is mind-boggling. Perspective. Before we get too caught up in our personal drama it helps to catch at least a glimpse of the considerably bigger picture. Consider for a moment the period at the... Continue reading

Yes, nearly Thanksgiving, and a different Thanksgiving it will be. For the first time in, well, decades, we won't be celebrating with the usual gathering of friends-- and no, it's never been a "Friendsgiving," it's always been a full-on Thanksgiving with a beautiful family of friends. Over the last few... Continue reading

Rumi has said: Everyone near a saint gets drunk with God. Have you had this experience? Have you spent time with someone so obviously and intimately connected to the Divine that you came away from the encounter "drunk with God," hushed in spirit, heart so filled with the awareness of... Continue reading

"God is love," Jesus tells us. Jesus never tells us, "God is justice." We may say, "God is just," but this is, grammatically, not the equivalent of saying, "God is love." "God is just" identifies one of many characteristics of God. In this case, "just" is an adjective. We're saying,... Continue reading

Early November, and the day is warm. I sit on the patio writing these words. Leaves from the plum tree overhead scatter the patio floor, leaves dark, dark green, like quiet pond water. The breeze lifts, culling more leaves; they fall around me, tick, ticking down through the branches, tick,... Continue reading