Have you ever been so buried with worry or sadness that you couldn’t move? I guess some people go running, or chop wood, or get busy doing anything to take their mind off their trouble, but I tend to freeze. My mind shuts down except the part that circles around the problem, and around, and […]
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CHRIST’S LIGHT SHINES EVEN WHEN WE CAN’T SEE HIM
I woke up early and made my way to the kitchen in darkness so deep I could feel it. The soft light that usually glows in the hallway was out. I inched my way along, afraid of knocking into something or falling down. I felt rather than saw the corner, and turning it my eye […]
GET READY TO MEET JESUS IN THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
Starting January 12, the Sunday Gospel readings in 2020 come for the most part from the gospel of Matthew. While all the gospels cover similar ground, Matthew’s gospel stands at the door to the New Testament as a bridge from the Old, showing how Jesus is the fulfillment of not only the hopes of the […]
FINDING JESUS AFTER CHRISTMAS: EPIPHANY
“For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” — Matthew 2:2b It’s a dull, gray day and there’s an emptiness around my heart, something I can’t quite name. Where is the child all the fuss was about? Where is Jesus? I wonder if the Church knew it might be […]
START THE NEW YEAR RIGHT: BUILD A BIBLE READING HABIT
How would your life be different if you read the Bible every day — or if you turned to it as often as you do your smartphone? Pope Francis asked that question and had this to say: “If we had the Word of God always in the heart, no temptation would be able to estrange […]
RECEIVING THE GAZE OF JESUS: an exercise in visio divina
Let’s “come into the Word” today by doing a little visio divina — reflecting on a painting of the Word-made-flesh. It’s getting close to Christmas, and I don’t know about you, but my brain is too full to read another thing. There is something about a quiet gaze that speaks to my heart right now. […]
FINDING NEW MEANING IN THE CHRISTMAS TREE
In the winter of 1510, the merchants of Riga, Latvia, hauled a tree into the center of the marketplace. They decorated it with roses, symbol of the Virgin Mary. They danced around the tree in celebration of the Christ-child’s birth, and then they set it alight in a blaze of glory. That was the first […]
REJOICE! HOW ABOUT A PRE-CHRISTMAS RE-BOOT?
Have you ever heard of “foreboding joy”? That’s what Brene Brown (in The Power of Vulnerability) calls it when we prepare for the worst even when things are at their best. Foreboding joy. I know it sounds like a contradiction in terms, but I’ll bet a lot of people feel something like it right now. […]
WAKE UP TO ADVENT WITH TWO BIBLE READING PLANS
Wake up! It’s time to make our way toward Bethlehem. + + + + + + + “Stay awake! … be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come” — from Luke 24:37-44, Gospel for the 1st Sunday of Advent Year A + + + + + […]
FIVE PSALMS TO GET YOUR HEART FIT FOR THANKSGIVING
It’s no accident that National Bible Week coincides with Thanksgiving. Its roots are in the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, when radio reports of the attack were alternated with Scripture readings to encourage the nation. Later, FDR proclaimed the week of Thanksgiving to be National Bible Week for all America, in gratitude to the Lord. […]
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