Holiness is Not an Accident
In the mid-1980’s Anne Tyler wrote a novel called The Accidental Tourist. While it is possible to be an accidental tourist, it is improbable if not impossible to be an accidental saint (nor, I might add, much to my chagrin, Read more [...]
~ All Saints Day ~
It occurs to me that today’s feast is an appropriate response to last week’s pre Halloween question. Whether 3rd graders on the playground or college students in the dorm room or white collar corporates still lucky enough to Read more [...]
~ 2010-2011 Theme: Poetry for the Sacred Journey ~
One of the most important books that I have read over the years is a thin book (127 pages) by scripture scholar Walter Brueggemann called The Prophetic Imagination. A succinct, eloquent, and powerful Read more [...]
We live in a verbose world. We live in a world bombarded by both images and words, the military-speak being intentional. It’s a war out there. To drive through a major American city these days is almost a violently overwhelming experience, a cross between Read more [...]
"The pilgrim is a poetic traveler, one who believes that there is poetry on the road, at the heart of everything."(Philip Cousineau in The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker’s Guide to Making Travel Sacred)
There are many metaphors to describe the human Read more [...]
My hope is to help us see how engaging poetry is a viable and enlivening spiritual practice.
In addition to the icon or window, I want to offer the image of the compass as a way of explaining the relationship between poetry and the spiritual life since, Read more [...]
I want to follow up on our Sunday gathering with a few reflections, some poems, some encouragement, and some invitations. First, I continue to be astonished, moved, and blessed by the quality of persons who find their way to H&H either again and Read more [...]
First, a quote from Etty Hillesum:
Ultimately we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others. The more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled Read more [...]
Today’s Reflection is an excerpt about Therese of Lisieux taken from John Dear’s book You Will Be My Witnesses. Born Therese Martin in Lisieux, Normandy, France, in 1873, she joined her sisters in the cloistered Carmelite convent at the age of 15. Read more [...]