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Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 February 2008

October 2018

October 05, 2018

Poetry Friday: “The Burned Butterfly”

My oldest daughter’s was gifted a butterfly garden for her 3rd birthday. We watched the...

August 2018

August 07, 2018

Here Is Where We Wait

This summer, I climbed the rotting steps to the hayloft of my family's barn to...

August 02, 2018

Abandoning Prayer

If you can keep your faith once you’ve stopped using prayer as an attempt to...

July 2018

July 30, 2018

Wabi-Sabi: Living with Beauty and Ugliness

Yesterday, a man might have killed me. Both receptionists were away from the counter when...

June 2018

June 07, 2018

Monasticism in Lockdown America: Part 4, Asceticism

Monks in the Orthodox tradition have long believed that God’s love is unchanging, constant, like...

May 2018

May 11, 2018

Poetry Friday: “are you my god”

It has been years since I read the Narnia books, but the phrase I remember...

April 2018

April 17, 2018

The Skirt of God

Dear Saint Francis, I imagined I saw you today out of the upstairs window. Your...

March 2018

March 21, 2018

Adventures in Praying with Scripture

How did I first hear of lectio divina? It must have been from the monks...

March 14, 2018

I Will Sing Your Praise

For a few years in the late 1990s, early 2000s, I brought a book of...

March 06, 2018

As I Lay (Nearly) Dying

At first I didn’t know that I was dying. I’d been rushed to the hospital...

February 2018

February 08, 2018

In a Funk

You’re not sorry you’re alive, just embarrassed. Aware of the burden of your body. How...

November 2017

November 03, 2017

Poetry Friday: “Speculation: Along the Way”

Did you ever try finding words for the experience of prayer? Or for the sense...

October 2017

October 27, 2017

Poetry Friday: “Notre Dame”

I love it when poems speak to each other and expand on a shared theme....

September 2017

September 08, 2017

Poetry Friday: “Russian Bell”

In this stirring poem by Anya Silver, the bell becomes a blueprint. First, the bell...

September 01, 2017

Poetry Friday: “The Psalm of Your Face”

“Lord, let…”: this is how nearly every sentence of Nicholas Samaras’s “The Psalm of Your...

August 2017

August 04, 2017

Poetry Friday: “My Life as an Open-Air Temple”

In Dolin’s poem we wake up abruptly inside the walls of an ancient temple. Walls...

June 2017

June 27, 2017

Practicing Presence, Part 2

The following two-part post was originally delivered as the 2017 commencement address for Trinity Academy...

June 16, 2017

Poetry Friday: “Prayer”

I used to collect poems that are prayers, so Sharon Cumberland’s “Prayer” immediately leapt out...

June 15, 2017

A Prayer for Kendrick Lamar

It occurs to me each time I listen to Kendrick Lamar’s new album, Damn: The award winning...

May 2017

May 24, 2017

Alleluia for the Easter Season

I used to find Easter a letdown. Lent is so full of the self-improvement activities...

May 19, 2017

Poetry Friday: “The Spirit of Promise”

Memories can make good material for poetry. In “The Spirit of Promise,” Daniel Donaghy is...

May 11, 2017

The “Oh, There You Are” Prayer

The love of God is scattershot. It is the love of the artist toward her...

November 2016

November 28, 2016

Saying Yes to the Annunciation

Of all the Gospel episodes, the Annunciation has long been one of the favorites of...

November 18, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Full Thunder Moon” by Julie L. Moore

The days following the election have been dark indeed. People unhappy with the outcome fear...

August 2016

August 09, 2016

Fit for Immortality?

“How’s your health?” my long-time friend asked me with concern. “The leukemia is creeping toward...

August 05, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Onesimus”

In this month of painful national and international news, Tania Runyan’s poem “Onesimus” offers a...

July 2016

July 15, 2016

Poetry Friday: “I Am Poured Out Like Water”

What attracts me to this poem is something deliberately absent yet evocatively present: baptism in...

July 11, 2016

Gotta Dance

My mother was a dancer. I use the term dancer in the most flexible possible...

June 2016

June 21, 2016

Knee Walk

By Grace Talusan We stumbled onto the bus in Lisbon, sleepy after the overnight flight...

June 17, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Tenebrae” by Anya Krugovoy Silver

This is a dark poem, raising a profound question about suffering. Its title, “Tenebrae,” is...