April 20

2020

It’s a curious thing that within the process of creating this image came its very message for me.

“If we really wish… to become a sign of hope in a broken world, all we really need to do… is narrow the gap between means and ends: between the gospel we profess and the gospel we live out, moment to moment, in the quality of our aliveness.” —Cynthia Bourgeault, Mystical Hope

2019

“There is some kiss we want with our whole lives, the touch of Spirit on the body. Seawater begs the pearl to break its shell. And the lily, how passionately it needs some wild Darling! At night, I open the window and ask the moon to come and press its face into mine. Breathe into me. Close the language-door, and open the love-window. The moon won’t use the door, only the window.” —Rumi

In the fullness of breath, we breathe YHWH. With every breath we get to practice a pause that holds together our inhale and exhale without any required fanfare of its sacredness.

When Jesus exhaled,

why did the world keep breathing

Love’s trajectory?

2018

I read this morning a note from ELCA Worship News. It began, “Here we are in Easter. We who are gifted with faith in the Risen Jesus are singing and maybe even shouting our alleluias. … Yet to be followers of Jesus, we pray to have faith not in a disembodied Spirit hovering away from us but in the one who said, ‘touch me and see.’”

Embodied spirituality… Have you ever shared awe with another? To recognize and honor such moments is worship. We are part of Something more.

The article goes on, “Easter can be a time for renewed attention to how we are being the body of Christ together in life-giving ways. …how do we live into practices in worship and daily life that honor the bodies we are, especially those most vulnerable?”

2017

“The Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day” recently became part of a conversation at the Guild. It’s funny that a few days later I would be reminded of that with the words of Cynthia Bourgeault, “Somehow when the heart becomes single (undivided, whole), the rest will follow.”