Graduates through the nation are being told, “Follow your passion.” But what if your passion is to do God’s will? That leaves you with a broad range of possibilities. I love writing but I love God more. I love writing precisely because I experience God through writing. I feel close to God when I am […]
Read MoreI wrote this in January of this year but waited to post it until I felt ready to devote sufficient time to blogging. Since then little has changed. 2013 is looking a lot like 2012. So I thought I would go ahead and post now. Writing 2012 In 2012 I had one article accepted for […]
Read MoreI’m not much of a blogger. I’ve come into this in a back handed way. My first effort was to publish one of my novels one chapter at a time with the idea that it would go viral and result in a real publishing deal. I put out one chapter and when there was no […]
Read MoreEpilogue – For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Doxology – Walter Brueggemann at a recent conference exclaimed that doxology needs to be exuberant, a self-abandonment in response to the inexplicable generosity of God. Easter certainly is a time for doxology, exuberant praise of God for all God has […]
Read MoreRandom Thoughts on Preaching using the Revised Common Lectionary by a Catholic Lay Woman As a Catholic Lay woman who has never been formally trained in preaching, who am I to preach? I am not allowed to preach in the Catholic Church, that being reserved to ordained priests and deacons, and yet that is what […]
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Jerusalem: sacred to all three of the major monotheistic faiths. A site of controversy, violence and abuse of the sacred, a place of contradiction. Karen Armstrong, in her book, Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths, describes thousands of years of history of this city, a history filled with bloodshed. With good reason, Jesus wept over the […]
Read More(This was to have been my last column for Jackson Citizen Patriot however it didn’t get published so I’m posting it here.) Why is it so hard to let go of “stuff.” I’m not a candidate for the reality show on hoarders. One can easily walk from room to room in my home with only […]
Read MoreSt. Gregory’s Abbey, Three Rivers, MI Benedictine monasteries pray all of the psalms over the course of one week, beginning with matins in the wee hours of the morning, through lauds, terce, sext, none, vespers and ending with compline before going to bed. I have wanted to experience this for some time, just had to […]
Read MoreBird by Bird – Psalm by Psalm I’m still in the beginning stages of this venture through the Psalms. When I look at the entirety of the book, I am overwhelmed. So many of the same themes are repeated over and over, how will I ever come up with new sermon material for each one? […]
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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” thus Charles Dickens began his novel, A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens, in his writing on Christmas, did more to save Christmas from a neglected, little observed celebration than any person of his time, leading to our current time of excess. This time […]
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