Sent by ash
we join Love in the desert,
disoriented, dizzy. we thirst
as we wander rending
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Prayer in a Time of Chaos
I can’t anymore. Sometimes urgently, sometimes softly but persistently, several times a day these words echo in my brain. They seem like an interruption and they need to be heard. I can’t anymore. In a world on fire, I am exhausted. As a spiritual director, I am a professional listener. Everyone I listen to right…
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When You Don’t Want to Look Back (and the Examen that meets you there)
I wake up at 4:20 a.m. Unable to get back to sleep, I brush my teeth, make a cup of coffee, and curl up in a rocking chair in the living room. My cat sits nearby. Christmas tree lights illuminate the dark room with a warm glow. The day before, I attended my kids’ Christmas…
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2 Prayers for this season
Emmanuel,The choirs sing peace on earth while the festive crowds feast and dump waste into bins. Meanwhile migrants are offeredthe opposite of welcome, The planet needs healing, Violence and conflict rage and Many people are without the basics:Food, shelter, water, warmth, love.Forgive us for how we have wandered Far from the meaning of your glorious Incarnation, from the simplicity and purityof your love…
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Lest we feast unto our own judgment
I sometimes joke that I want to start a cooking blog where, instead of telling the same formulaic stories about “my grandmother used to make this cake,” or “my family discovered this stew on vacation,” I situate my recipes in dramatic fantasies and thrillers. Who wouldn’t want to try the cake I made for my…
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There are no words
“There are no words,” she tells me. As she sits on the couch across from my chair, she nevertheless fishes for the box of tissues to curb the tears and salvage some words from the inner devastation she experiences. As a social worker and psychotherapist, this is familiar territory for me. What makes this time…
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The signs of these times
You know how to judge the appearance of the sky,but you cannot judge the signs of the times.–Matthew 16:3 The smog is thick, the water murkyEach day moods are shifty Now we wonder if clarity is mythIs consistency a scam Strategic plans fell out of fashion Chaos creeps like cancer Maybe the era of fairnessAged out…
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Prayers for times like these
For Peace God of Unity and Peace, Bless our longings for peace as we give you our heartaches and fears. Holy One, we beg you to soften the hearts of those who wage war. By your grace, may minds be opened to nonviolent solutions. In your mercy, may diplomacy and peace prevail beyond destruction and…
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The presence of the wild, Holy Spirit and the rise of another revolution
Days ago, Christians gathered in Churches around the world and chanted a summons to the sweet, Holy Spirit. Veni Sancte Spiritus. Days ago plus today and tomorrow, we fill(ed) the streets with chants of lament and outrage. We pray, we chant. We cry for raids to end. We risk arrest while neighbors and friends— blessed…
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A way to get through this
Look deep into the current,See what’s real and holy,Look around: see your friends. Study sparkles in their pupils.See how each face is a mirror of love Looking into you.Trust the voices Who will summonYou in the night. Learn their names,their numbers.Plant phone trees.These faces and voices:They are your people.Together you’ll be Pilgrims crossing Jordansand dreaming…
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A Feast of Love in the Darkest of Times
The Mass of the Lord’s Supper tonight marks the beginning of the Paschal Triduum, the Church’s celebration of Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection. Celebrated on the evening of Holy Thursday, it is my favorite night of the year — a radical feast of love in the darkest of times. We wash one another’s sweaty, aching…
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Ashen timelines
we inherit historyhistory of horror, heartachethe systemic sinsthe memories of line after lineof penitent, penitentour breath, our skinheavy hearts –no denial, only Truthrepent, repentancestors lamentgaze into flamessmoke, smog, ash:reality invades temptations to escapeyet we must remain, remainso we say Amento mortality, humilityto dust & decayto being todaythe bodiesalong linesof time smearedwith sorrow,with truth,with ash who…
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