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Spiritual Reflections

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January 2021

January 25, 2021

Meeting of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

On this feast I give you the message from Bishop Thomas: I greet you on...

January 24, 2021

Equality is a Fiction, but Useful, Yet a Fiction.

Look to beauty, all sorts. Once in Tsarskoye Selo I saw so much beauty at...

January 22, 2021

A Thriving Soul: Beauty, Pleasure, Pain

There is education in beauty. The beauty, and the heights, made me giddy as I neared...

January 21, 2021

God wants what is Good and Beautiful

God is love and has built a cosmos that is based on love. As a...

January 19, 2021

Other People’s Heroes

Christmas is almost a month behind us, but Christmas is coming. The lessons of that...

January 17, 2021

A Lesson in Beauty from the Fig Tree

We run on the wrong clock. This is one way of understanding the “difficult” passage...

January 15, 2021

Weirdly Cold

As I write the temperature is roughly 30 and heading for 24 Fahrenheit. Many places...

January 14, 2021

The Yardstick for God?

The yardstick always was around, a long whip like piece of wood. In some houses,...

January 13, 2021

Getting There, Coming Back: On the Energy of Nessie

We get there quickly, we come back slowly. Nessie, the wonder dog, becomes so excited...

January 12, 2021

The Last Few Miles

We named our car "Israel" with the hope that an early lemon, an obvious Jacob,...

January 11, 2021

Gift Boxed Athena: We keep her for the good she has done.

Athena is so old that Brett Favre was a young gunslinger when she first killed...

January 10, 2021

Do Not Touch the Trumpet

I like buying presents, especially for the Fairest Flower in all Christendom Hope. If you...

January 08, 2021

Divine Love and the Gift of Human Consent

What went wrong? Jesus came to give the possibility of figs in season, holidays when...

January 07, 2021

Windows through Windows through Windows to God Jesus

Look through a window, through another window, maybe a final window, and see God. This...

January 06, 2021

A Utopia that is Someplace for Us (Epiphany)

On the road, you come to places that are marvels, known to those who live...

January 05, 2021

Rest on the Twelfth Night in a House for Our Heroes (Twelfth Night of Christmas)

The Last Day of the Christmas Feasting Gracious friends invited us out of Houston, that...

January 04, 2021

All Grown Up (Eleventh Day of Christmas)

I cannot go to Granny’s anymore. The stocking from 1908 Preston Street, Granny’s house, is...

January 03, 2021

Joseph: the Man at Christmas (Reflections on the Tenth Day of Christmas)

One day in school a teacher asked what growing up with a disabled parent had...

January 02, 2021

Eternal Vision (Ninth Day of Christmas)

A solution to what ails us is an eternal vision, but we begin in small...

January 01, 2021

Being For What We Are For (Reflections at the End of the Eighth Day of Christmas)

I spent the afternoon with some of the family and we were bound by love to...

December 2020

December 31, 2020

Any Excuse for Hope (The Seventh Day of Christmas)

Take any good excuse for a party. The Seventh Day of Christmas also brings the “new year”...

December 30, 2020

Cracked Like Old Stained Glass (Sixth Day of Christmas)

We are cracked, but beautiful. Our restoration is coming. From my chair, right now, I...

December 29, 2020

The Transformation done by the Lowly (Fifth Day of Christmas)

All was transformed, each culture, every thought, by Christmas. Each good from every time was kept...

December 28, 2020

Beauty has Saved the World (Fourth Day of Christmas)

“Beauty,” he said to me, “will save the world.” I knew what he meant and...

December 27, 2020

Kingdom Came (The Third Day of Christmas)

Let us live in peace, so far as is possible, in the Kingdom born before...

December 26, 2020

Let the Bad Go, The Feast of Stephen (Second Day of Christmas, Sometimes Called Boxing Day)

Some things seem so bad, they can ruin the thing they are a bit like...

December 25, 2020

So Much Love, Fear is Gone, Joy is Possible

Forty-five minutes until the Twelve Days of Christmas begin. We have had some pain this...

December 24, 2020

Bringing Our Gifts to the Holiday of History: Twelve Days Start on the Eve of Christmas

How does one best find the joy of a holiday? There are seasons to Christmas:...

December 23, 2020

Mighty Athena in the Castle!

Mighty Athena looks over the castle each Christmas night. Athena is our cat, making twenty...

December 22, 2020

A Sign in the Heavens

Last night I went out with my binoculars, a star chart on my mobile, and...