Coming up at the end of this week are two of my favourite liturgical feasts—those of All Saints and All Souls. I simply love how they afford a particular opportunity to collectively call to mind loved ones that have gone before and also to envision the communion of saints who accompany us. All Saints-All Souls…
Tag: God
10K Surrenders (a Poem)
We do not attain anything by our own holiness but by ten thousand surrenders to mercy. A lifetime of received forgiveness allows us to become mercy. -Richard Rohr- Ten thousand surrenders to mercy One. When I experiencethe nine thousandnine hundred ninetyninewaysyou find to show me that You are as I made you-wondrous and full of grace…and yes, also challenge…and…
Either Way, All a Gift
Story Bearing We all bear stories.Some that ache with the changing weather;Others that are round-soft with telling;tales of way-finding or merry-makingor, if we are lucky, a bit of swashbuckling derring-do. Then there are the othersthat live folded into manageable;tucked between chapters, recorded on a page of memory in the bookwhose spine and binding you design; the bookthat…
That which remains
A couple of Sundays ago, I watched a friend, a priest and preacher, deliver her sermon to the congregation gathered at her parish. She spoke of the Gospel of the day in which Jesus poses the question, Who do you say that I am? This was developed and included a reference to the element of…
It’s all Here (From the Journal…)
Was just speaking with someone yesterday about how I don’t necessarily need to go anywhere to have ‘adventure’ present itself. Opening the door is sometimes all the invitation necessary. It also does depend on how you interpret ‘adventure,’ I suppose. For me, I guess I’d say it has something to do with wonder, curiosity, story,…
Both Subtle and Flamboyant
Someone asked me once whether I searched for concrete knowledge of God. My response was that I preferred the experience of Mystery. Enticing, both subtle and flamboyant—in tolerable proportion, and always just that far away…until becoming part of its fullness. And, somehow, I don’t think we need to die to become enfolded in its expanse—we…
Until Quiet: A Poem
Until Quiet With you at the tip of my pen, I wroteuntil words found their branches, tucked infeathers, and nesting lightly, breathed inthe incense of lilac and pine,rose, earth, and cedar; until stillness,revealing its canopy, drew me intoall of its dimensions, offered meits hand to enter the depths of its colour-stained span of mystery; until…
Sanctuary of Heart
…For the Feast of the Sacred Heart… Sanctuary of Heart Sanctuary of place and person-neither containing,neither constraining,All embracing:A refuge of perspectiveon infinite You.A new slant of light,a peripheral hummingtoward which I bend in bright fascinationof always and everywhere You;of the tousled and wild diversitythat is You;You who named each onewho claim each one,who loves and…
Sacrament of Being
Sacrament of Being While out among,quite nearly within,the tidal chords of an ocean’s evening andthe cloud swept memory of a day,I praise the sacrament of being.Praise, which feels like an earthy assentnodded toward the horizon witharms wide-stretched and head tilted back;Sacrament, a gift of convergencewhere humanity and divinitycome together as grace;Being, wholeness, wrapped in this…
I Believe
The other day I was on a Zoom call and the subjects of Relative and Essential truth came up in the course of discussion. That got me considering how long it had been since writing something that approached a personal creed…that included my take on elements of more formal creeds and also things more personal…
Consider the Lilies 