A Modest Proposal

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Daniel J. Miller

My modest proposal is that if we cannot always “embody the hurt” of others at least we can compassionately accompany them as they struggle to face, faithfully live, and respond to the painful parts of reality. At least we can help conquer callousness Read more [...]

Going Down into the Swamplands

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Daniel J. Miller

In a dark time, the eye begins to see, I meet my shadow in the deepening shade; I hear my echo in the echoing wood-- A lord of nature weeping to a tree, I live between the heron and the wren, Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den. ~ Theodore Read more [...]

Holding What Is

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Daniel J. Miller

A NOTE (to the H & H community): Some of you have mused about the synchronicity of it all, the sudden or continued unsolicited descent in your life or the life of those close to you during this month when our focus is Practicing Descent (wondering, Read more [...]

Daring the Descent

Posted on January 21, 2010 by Daniel J. Miller

When we talk about the path of descent it is important to realize that descent is not always traumatic, automatically full of terror, or necessarily negative. At the risk of stating the obvious, what descent is meant to convey is going down into the depths Read more [...]

Prayer and Descent

Posted on January 19, 2010 by Daniel J. Miller

As we make the transition from practicing prayer to practicing descent, I wanted to reiterate something I said on Sunday about prayer that is kin to the journey downward, whether as intentional spiritual practice or as the unsolicited gravity of life. I Read more [...]

Remembering Where We Come From

Posted on January 15, 2010 by Daniel J. Miller

As mystics know so well, just as there is no one word or name adequate to address G-d, there is no one image that is big or deep enough to capture the essence of prayer. So, like the mystics, I continue to offer a variety of images in the hope that one Read more [...]

A Kneeler in Training

Posted on January 13, 2010 by Daniel J. Miller

Two memories from my pre-Vatican II childhood that stick with me to this day revolve around kneeling. One is of my father, a man of simple but substantive faith, a man like all men blessed and broken, leaving the church pew, going up to the altar railing Read more [...]

Pray As You Can

Posted on January 5, 2010 by Daniel J. Miller

At our last H&H gathering when I spoke about the practice of prayer I mentioned that there is no one way to pray, that we need to pray as we can not as we can’t, and that we need to be careful not to violate the very spirit of prayer by suggesting Read more [...]

Prayer Engages Us in Reality

Posted on January 4, 2010 by Daniel J. Miller

I have always agreed with the Anglican priest and theologian Kenneth Leech who writes that an authentic spirituality is one that necessarily points people in the direction of reality and equips them in some way to move consciously and faithfully in that Read more [...]

The Sacred Braid

Helping Persons and Communities Weave Lives of Spiritual Depth.