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Lenten Retreat
I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! Philippians 3: 10-11 Who wants to suffer? It’s not something we typically choose, nor should we without good reason. But Jesus did choose to suffer, because of his tremendous love for us. He chose to enter into our suffering here on earth, in order to give us life. Lent is a season during which we choose to identify with Jesus, sharing in his sufferings, not for some morbid fascination with suffering,…
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New Year’s Day of Reflection (Sketching as Prayer)
2023 is just beyond the turning of the calendar. A New Year full of hopes and potential and… unknowns. The turning of the calendar provides a context for looking back to reflect on the year we’re just closing out and looking forward as we give thought to our path for the coming year. We all have hopes and perhaps dreams for the next 12 months, but much is unknown to us and beyond our control. We can have the certainty of knowing we are in God’s loving care, and that all our days are known to him, but with health concerns, a challenging economy, and general societal turmoil it can…
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Personal Advent Retreat
I spent a wonderful 24 hours at Holy Cross Monastery this week. While I didn’t have a particularly Advent-themed plan for my retreat, I had wanted to take time for silence and reflection at the start of Advent, which is also the start of the Church Year. The monastery was in complete silence for their Advent Contemplative Days, and the whole time there was richly quiet. I went with the idea of pondering a Rule of Life for this season of my life and as a new liturgical year begins (a Rule of Life is a way of intentionally planning for the pattern and practices of one’s life, in particular…
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Sketching as Prayer Retreat
As summer passes into autumn and a new season begins, this is a good time to stop and reflect on the past few months and look ahead with intention to the coming season. The hot days of summer can be slow and restful, but sometimes they can also seem more hectic with family visits and extra activities, so it’s helpful to pause to catch our breath and reorient ourselves. Join me for a day of retreat, rest, and renewal as we open our sketchbooks or journals, eyes, and hearts to God’s presence in his creation and look to discover his fingerprints all around us. This is an opportunity to slow down…
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Spiritual Direction
Do you wish for someone to listen to you and to listen with you to God? Someone who will help you discern God’s presence and his invitation to you in the midst of your questions, struggles, or doubts? Spiritual direction is a ministry of listening to and accompanying another person as they seek to be attentive to God. It’s a time and place to explore questions, doubts, desires, dreams, and struggles in the context of listening for God’s invitation. Christian spiritual direction is biblically grounded and is Trinitarian in focus– recognizing that we are invited into loving relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It can be…
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Listening and Hearing
I’m at our daughter’s home meeting our newest granddaughter, Sylvia, and helping out with her and two-year-old William this week, which means not much downtime, but lots of laughter with a toddler and sweet snuggles with a newborn. Our wonderful son-in-law, Howard, wanted to be sure I got some of the alone time I need, so he hung a hammock chair in the woodland garden he has been making in their woods, and I spent some time sketching there this afternoon. As I sketched a couple of trees, I enjoyed the sound of many birds ringing through the dense woods. Mostly what I heard were the nearly continuous, loud singing…
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Holy Week Musings in Words and Pictures
I’ve been pondering the events of the final week before Jesus was crucified, what we call Holy Week, mulling over the words from the four gospels and sketching some of the scenes. The book He Was One of Us, by Rien Poortvliet, a Dutch artist whose work I find inspiring, is a beautiful and poignant presentation in Poortvliet’s words and sketches of the humanity of Jesus throughout his life on earth. I find that Poortvliet’s sketches help me realize more deeply the truth that Jesus was fully man as well as fully God, and therefore felt emotional and physical pain as we do. And that leads me to ponder how…
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Sabbath- a Cathedral in Time
Sabbath– the word takes me gently by the hand and leads me away–away from the clutter of a half-done to-do list; away from the clamorous “musts” and “shoulds” of phone calls, emails, and other social demands; away from the guilt-tinged drive to make myself better; even away from the internal pressure to make the most of my “free” time. As I step away from the things that hem me in, my breath comes deeper and slower, my shoulders relax and I stand straighter, no longer pressed down. My soul simultaneously sits quietly and dances exuberantly, sings with joy and listens for a still small voice. I’ve heard the Sabbath described…
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Out of the mouths of babes
I’m in Texas spending time with our son Nathaniel and his family and getting to know our newest grandchild, Mary. I’m loving the sweetness of holding a newborn snuggled in my arms, as well as the enthusiasm, boundless energy, and creativity of Mary’s three older siblings. But my heart is also heavy with concern for dear friends back home and their family members who are battling Covid right now, and for two other friends who are hospitalized with very serious heart issues. This morning I was sitting with Paul, Elizabeth, and Samuel while they were eating breakfast, and at one point, was silently praying for our friends and feeling the…
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Apple of God’s Eye
I decided to do something different this week; rather than daily prayer suggestions, I sketched what jumped out at me from my psalm reading yesterday morning. I’ve been meditating on these verses, and sketching slows me down and helps me visualize something from Scripture in a way that makes it stick in my mind more clearly and for longer. I may do more of this sort of prayer in the coming weeks. This week I’m sharing my sketching meditation on Psalm 17:6-8. If anyone reading this would also like to sketch it, I would love to see your sketches, if you’d like to share them. I call on you, O…