Ash Wednesday and What’s Wrong with the World

An old post re-worked a bit and re-posted again… The Book of Common Prayer tells us that: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. …the whole congregation was…

On peace

For sheer practical wisdom, Paul’s famous words have never been surpassed.  He wrote: “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”  It is when…

Ash Wednesday and What’s Wrong with the World

An old post re-worked a bit and re-posted… According to the Book of Common Prayer: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. …the whole congregation was put in…

Thoughts on a Friday

Prayer makes your heart bigger, until it is capable of containing the gift of God himself. ~Mother Teresa

Prayer to the child of Bethlehem

Sweet child of Bethlehem, allow us to fathom with our whole soul this profound mystery of the Nativity. Put in the hearts of men that peace which they seek, at times with such violence, and which you only can give. Help them to know you better and live as brothers, like children of the same…

A prayer for Lenten joy

Father, it is a great comfort to us that you and your Son are never glib and never gloomy.  We delight in the truth that you can be infinitely happy without being callous to our pain.  We stand in wonder that the light of Jesus’ joy makes a rainbow in the tears on his face. …

Praying through Lent

There is a quiet kind of joy, O Lord, that Jesus did both save us from our sin and show us how to love…  He took our poverty upon himself that we, in him, might have the riches of his heaven, and he calls us now to use our riches for the poor…. O Father,…

When things are shifting…

In the unsettling that is life, whether things are good, bad, or just changing, I’m learning to be helped by remembering the prayers that are wrapped around me.  I often forget it, but I know they’re there, a silent, invisible, but very real offering rising as incense to the Father from dear ones scattered across…

The milk in the microwave

When you come home to find the milk in the microwave, you’re glad that the day is book-ended with Psalm 37, and you wonder what you’ll have for breakfast tomorrow. You decide it’s probably good that you live alone so there’s no one to yell at, and wonder if you would have prayed this prayer…

A step towards forgiveness…

Dealing with difficult people is difficult, there’s no two ways about it. Praying for those difficult folks in my life at the moment helps me a bit. It tends to take me awhile to get around to this stage, though.  First, I’m praying for the problem to just go away, for them to disappear or…

A bit on love

Here’s a bit that came out of some of the reading lately: Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake, spiritual love loves him for Christ’s sake.  Therefore, human love seeks direct contact with the other person; it loves him not as a free person but as one whom it binds…

Giving Thanks for Freedom

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Giving thanks today for freedom from: fear condemnation death bondage to old ways of life want worry rejection And for freedom to: love hope live rejoice serve forgive rest approach God trust And remembering that with freedom comes some responsibility… And that not…