Reflecting on the Crucible that Is the New Year
Dear friends, I continue to reflect on images and ideas that came to me during our pilgrimage to the Holy Land in November 2022. In this post, I’d like to make some connections between pilgrimage as crucible and our pilgrim journey into the new year. A crucible is the...
Sharing Thoughts on Incarnation in Christmastide
Happy New Year! As has become a yearly tradition, I led an Advent retreat day at St. Philip’s last month. The theme was Incarnation—the fancy word for God in Christ becoming flesh in Jesus. As we continue living into the season of Christmastide, I thought I would...
Pondering Childbirth in Christmastide
Yesterday Christians celebrated Jesus’ birth. Recently, I read a reflection that got me thinking about childbirth. So, I thought I would begin the Christmastide season by reflecting on the gifts and dangers of childbirth. Anyone who has been responsible for a child...
Sharing Christ with Children in Jerusalem
As I noted in last week’s post, I’m sharing my thoughts on my interactions with Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land this Advent. Today I want to focus on a family that turns their home into Jerusalem Santa’s House each year, a place for “children to feel the...
One Man’s Experience of Being Christian in the Holy Land Today
During Advent this year, I’m focusing much of my attention on the experience of Christians in the Holy Land today. This is because I served as spiritual director for a pilgrimage from St. Philip’s to the Holy Land last month. In this post, I want to focus on the...
Honoring the Publication of a New Book of Homilies: A Prisoner and You Visited Me
Along with Advent comes the liturgical new year. This also means that the latest book in the Homilists for the Homeless series has now been published. A Prisoner and You Visited Me gathers homilies from a variety of well-known Christian leaders (like Richard Rohr, Jan...
Palestinian Christians Face Impossible Choices in the Holy Land
Henry and I recently returned from a long-awaited (and repeatedly postponed!) pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We first traveled there in January 2017 and I blogged about it quite a bit after my return. I sense that this time will be the same, as there’s already so much I...
Pondering How to Be a Good Relative
Last month, I attended our Episcopal Diocese’s annual convention and had the privilege of hearing the Rev. Isaiah Shaneequa Brokenleg give the keynote speech. She’s on the national church staff in the Office of Reconciliation, Justice and Creation Care. Her words...
Movement and Stillness in the Waning Year
A spiritual director colleague recently shared a Rumi poem on her Silentium post and one stanza really resonated for me: I seem restless, but I am deeply at ease.Branches tremble; the roots are still. My life is quite full at the moment (I’ll be sharing more specifics...
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