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Progressive Christian

2013-12-21T17:01:38-08:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Preparing the Way: Loving

Last updated on: December 21, 2013 at 5:01 pm By Elizabeth Nordquist

Advent IV: A new hymnal introduces an Advent hymn new to me: Rejoice, rejoice take heart in the night. Though dark the winter and cheerless, the rising sun shall crown you with light; be strong and loving and fearless. LOVE BE OUR SONG AND LOVE OUR PRAYER AND LOVE OUR ENDLESS STORY; may God fill every day we share and bring us at last into glory. (Marty Haugen, 1983) It is after all about Love, this Advent-Christmas thing. And I... Read more

2014-12-29T11:03:24-08:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Preparing the Way: Silence

Last updated on: December 29, 2014 at 11:03 am By Elizabeth Nordquist

Advent III: Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand; ponder nothing earthly minded, for with blessing in his hand, Christ our God to earth descended, our full homage to demand. (Liturgy of St. James, 4th Century) Much of the important preparation of Advent happens in silence. Zechariah lives in an imposed silence. Elizabeth is left without a conversation partner for most of her pregnancy. And surely Mary could only muse in silence as to the... Read more

2013-12-12T10:27:36-08:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

All Will Be Well: A Book Review

Last updated on: December 12, 2013 at 10:27 am By Elizabeth Nordquist

Book Review for The Showings of Julian of Norwich: A New Translation by Mirabai Star Lady Julian is a longtime friend and teacher to me. She has been since I first read her Revelations of Divine Love in seminary. I wear a ring on my right hand that tells me “All will be well,” and I am able to turn the inner circle around the outer frame as a prayer or in times of anxiety. So I went to meet... Read more

2013-12-08T15:58:25-08:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Preparing the Way: Making the Crooked Straight

Last updated on: December 8, 2013 at 3:58 pm By Elizabeth Nordquist

Advent II: My city is full of potholes and cracked sidewalks. It was a critical talking point in the latest mayoral election–who was the candidate who would make our roads and paths viable so that we could get to where we go in safety? The Advent texts and hymns call us to this task this season: Make you straight what long was crooked, make the rougher places plain; let your hearts be true and humble, as befits God’s holy reign.... Read more

2013-12-01T19:07:31-08:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Preparing the Way: Speaking Comfort

Last updated on: December 1, 2013 at 7:07 pm By Elizabeth Nordquist

Advent Begins: Week I I have been wondering how to take the Advent charge to prepare the way for the coming of the Holy One into my little corner of the world, into my little sphere of influence. As often happens, I am given direction by sacred text in Scripture and in song. In this 17th Century Advent hymn, Joannes Olearius gives us this direction based on Isaiah 40: Comfort, comfort you my people, tell of peace, thus says our... Read more

2013-11-22T09:32:27-08:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Gratefulness for Things Unseen

Last updated on: November 22, 2013 at 9:32 am By Elizabeth Nordquist

When I sit down to eat with my beloved ones, we always begin by going around the table to name the things for which we are thankful! Depending on their age, each child and adult states quite concretely what it is that makes her or him grateful–dollies, hexbugs, friends, houses to live in, food to eat. I too am grateful for each tangible gift that Grace brings in to my life. However, this year I am pondering the intangible, the... Read more

2013-11-15T09:28:03-08:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Not Enough

Last updated on: November 15, 2013 at 9:28 am By Elizabeth Nordquist

Sometimes my best intentions are not enough to bring good news to those around me. I think I mean well. I try to listen truly, deeply, humbly, but much need is greater than my capacity to meet, or what I have to offer is not a preferred response for the one to whom I offer it. It discourages me. It did this week, when in encounters I had hoped to be helpful turned out to be ones in which my... Read more

2013-11-09T16:10:10-08:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Humble Pie

Last updated on: November 9, 2013 at 4:10 pm By Elizabeth Nordquist

Humility is a spiritual quality for which I have never prayed! As a woman I often felt that it was something thrust on me, in the Church and in the world; it was something that someone else thought I ought to have, and I resisted that notion. Then culturally, the caricatures of the meek or the humble were never attractive either–doormat, milquetoast, mouse—none of them inspired me to do what I was made and called to do, or to dream... Read more

2013-10-31T06:24:22-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Saintly Rose

Last updated on: October 31, 2013 at 6:24 am By Elizabeth Nordquist

It is almost November, All Saints Day, and the roses that still bloom in my garden come from a saint named Marianne. Marianne was a parishoner in a church I served. When I first became aware of her, she was married to a Husband-in-Charge, so it was very hard for me to know much about who she was. Faithfully occupying the same pew every Sunday morning, she seemed like one of those members of the flock you could count on... Read more

2013-10-18T12:38:23-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Speaking the Truth for Love

Last updated on: October 18, 2013 at 12:38 pm By Elizabeth Nordquist

Reflections on The Dave Test by Frederick W. Schmidt I welcomed this book into my library, but more importantly into my inner heart, because I found it to be a book that spoke the truth about life and death, even the small lives and deaths in between our birth date and date of death. Frederick Schmidt writes out of deep personal pain, but also out of deep conviction born of wrestling with the Holy One, prompted by the crucible of... Read more

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