RELAXING
When we think about trying to follow the Gospel directives, or in old-fashioned terms, the practice of virtue, we normally associate this with a lot of effort. Suppose that what is needed is not more will power, or muscle power, or major inner strategies? Suppose we might need to relax. Relax?
A classic Maine nor’easter is blowing outside my window and the snow is falling so rapidly that it’s hard to see across the blueberry field. It’s March 1, and until now the winter has been so mild that it seemed the days would continue to roll calmly onwards into April. The crocus are up, the…
STILL PRAYING What happens to us during our prayer time after we’ve been praying, day in and day out, for years? Perhaps we get tired. Or bored. Or just plain distracted, especially if we’re going through a busy time in our lives. If this happens to us—and it happens to all of us at some…
I was raised Protestant, in the United Church of Christ, but in high school I met a teacher who lent me a biography of St. Teresa of Avila. It was love at first sight, and I knew what I wanted to be “when I grew up.” But it wasn’t that easy! Not only was I…
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FEAR AND FATIGUE What a time we have all been having! What a challenging, difficult, demanding year! As if the pandemic were not enough, we’ve suffered through some of the worst fires in history in the West, and pummeling, unremitting hurricanes in the South and East. With all of this fatigue, and all of these…
CHANGE “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” runs an old folk wisdom saying. This saying has never seemed so profoundly true as today. So many things change today: a new president in the White House, the seasons, the death of Pope Francis, and the new pope, Leo XIV. Is there anything…
