For most of us, it’s hard to let go of the people we love. We want the best for them and we’ve spent years trying to coach them. We’ve worried over their plights and relished their successes. We wonder how that can be wrong.
Continue reading “The Prayer of Letting Go”
As we start each day getting ready to go out in the world, what interior attitudes do you take out of the drawer and put on? Do you put on the right shoes to walk the path of Christ to withstand the journey?
Continue reading “Never Without Love”
We live in a world where we find uncertainty around most every corner we turn. Even with faith and a firm foundation, it can be a dark and depressing place. For those who struggle with mental illness, a thread of hope can be the difference between life and death.
Continue reading “Hope in the Darkness”
As we celebrate the mothers in our life, we traditionally think of the women who have given birth or those who have adopted children. But today let’s also celebrate the mothers who have lost a child and who carry that burden, the ones who live in hope to one day have a child, and to those mothers who have given up a child for adoption. Let’s also hold close, in prayer the women, who have made the decision to end a life. The bonds of motherhood are never severed despite what we justify and try to normalize.
Continue reading “Celebrating Motherhood”
Rachel in the Book of Jeremiah shows us how to lament, how to cry out to God. We must learn to pray about the things that deeply disturb us. The prophet Jeremiah writes of Rachel’s lamenting “voice in Ramah” that can only weep at the world’s suffering.
Continue reading “Crying Out to God”
Recently I was reading about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his example of lament. He was an amazing person who knew how to fight justly, with diligence, faith, and hope. We need more of us like him in our world today and we can start by learning how to lament.
Continue reading “Learning to Lament”
Fear is the greatest weapon against us. It’s important for us to protect our beliefs, and stand up for what we believe in. But when we defend ourselves, and our way of living, we should do so not out of fear but out of conviction that they are good. This requires self-reflection and self-correction. If we fear losing the things we are attached to, what are we saying about their universal goodness?
Continue reading “Fear Leads to Foolishness”
Every human person consists of both a body and soul. Just as our body needs things to survive and grow, such as oxygen, water, food, etc., so our soul needs things as well, such as faith, hope, and love. These spiritual longings point to the truth that every human person has a natural desire for God.
Continue reading “Learning to Love”
The narrow path is one of humility. Our souls long to rest in their pure state as God designed. But the human condition is the struggle with the ego that shapes and adapts us to living on earth. God’s mercy so greatly wants to act within us that all we need to do is open the door.
Continue reading “Humility is the Way”
One of the ideas in twelve step recovery is placing principle above personalities. I find myself leaning into this practice often these days. So much of the conversation in the United States has to do with individual truth coupled with attitudes that create division. Over the years, I’ve struggled with keeping my side of the street clean as it is tempting to pass along things we hear about other people to make ourselves feel better than.
Continue reading “Avoiding Gossip”
