Wendell Berry is an American farmer, writer, environmentalist, poet and general all around man who wishes all of us to calm down and explore what we don’t know. His very short poem ‘To know the dark’ has been often quoted. It is a short poem that encourages the contemplation of the unknown.
Read MoreSpirituals are uniquely American music, emerging as they do from the African American people who endured slavery. They were people who had their own native African spirituality taken from them, abruptly and violently, as though it were of no account. And then Christianity was forced upon them.
Read MoreThe Crucifixion of Jesus has been a focus for painters throughout the ages. What is depicted reflects the time, place, economics and politics of the painters and the culture in which they reside. Most notably, European artists from the Renaissance on, have painted Jesus, his family and his disciples as Caucasian, when in fact, Jesus was in the middle east, and would have had an ethnicity that reflected his birth place.
Read MoreThe Angelus (French: L'Angélus) is an oil painting by French painter Jean-François Millet, completed between 1857 and 1859. The painting depicts two peasants bowing in a field over a basket of potatoes to say a prayer, the Angelus, that together with the ringing of the bell from the church on the horizon marks the end of a day's work.
Read MoreThe hymn "This Day God Gives Us" has a wonderful lyric that draws us into a meditation of the moment, a gratitude for all things, and the safety of the divine embrace. It is a modern take on the ancient Celtic writing St. Patrick's Breastplate.
Read MoreAs people of the way we need to be able take into account many parts of an argument or situation, to have a voice that can hold two opposing ideas at once, without feeling the need to choose one against the other. It is a voice that is more interesting in nurturing than opposing, more interested in discovering than demanding, a voice that is more interested in serving, than oppressing. Jesus was such a voice. And it is a challenging one.
Read MoreThose who are already facing health challenges, mental, physical or a combination of both, can feel overwhelmed. And even those with no apparent struggles can feel less grounded in the midst of the fluidity that is the current landscape. It may be wise to say that 'the only way forward is through.' But the through is not always a saunter through the flower filled meadow. Nevertheless, we persist.
It is hard to imagine where everything is headed - except to know that we are living in an uncertain time - and that living in the day, confining our thoughts to what - and who - we have in front of us is paramount. It is the ultimate spiritual discipline.
It is perhaps a time to remember, most of all, that though we can control the smaller, intimate moments in our lives and in our hearts, the larger arena of the universe is not within our control.
It is such a strange landscape to be living in. Everything looks the same, but it's all different. Simple things like shopping have become complicated rituals that need careful orchestration. Simple pleasures like visiting for a morning chat, are bound by rules and rituals we could never have guessed at.
Read MoreWhen we quiet ourselves, and listen to our inner wisdom, we do know how to proceed. We may despair, we may feel low in spirit, we may be sorrowful. But we do have a plan of action. We do know what we are to do. Hold steady. Keep your eyes on God. Keep your arms open to the world. Know you will sometimes be hurt, and keep loving anyway.
Read MoreThe world with all its delights, and sorrows, pushes and pulls us in many different directions. We tend to think that we are having to choose always, between good and bad. But this is not so. We are simply called to choose one way or another way, and often the choices are between two equally good things. How then will we know which path is the one to follow?
Read MoreBoth hope and the risk get summed up on Epiphany. The word means “manifestation,” or “appearance” or “revelatory moment.” Theologically speaking, epiphanies signal something new, but—at least for a lot of folk—something uncomfortable as well.
Read MoreWhen we look into the face of the other, truly look, we see them in all their vulnerability, in their unique beauty, in their richness of thought, their complexity. We see how easy it is to kill them in the many, many ways we can do this, and we see that they are asking that we do not.
Read MoreThe United Church of Canada holds many of tenets that are emerging in this new conversation on ‘what it means to be the church’. The conversations are important ones. Here below, Richard Rohn in a series of three audio talks - 45 minutes each - talks about just what the whole conversation is all about.
Read MoreRichard Rohr, speaking about his work as director and creator of the Centre for Contemplation and Action, talks about his thoughts on The Emerging, or Emergent Church. You will also find in the listening section, a series of three lectures on this subject recorded in early 2021.
Read MoreUnderstanding the concepts in the Emerging church is important for any churches in the 21st century who desires to provide a spiritual place of rest, reflection and intelligent theology for their local neighbourhood. Here Peter Rollins, Irish writher, Christian theologian and philosopher, talks about the Emergent Church in an interview.
Read MoreWe can never know the full essence of God, which is why throughout sacred scriptures and all other intelligent writings concerning the divine, similes and metaphors are used to describe God. To worship the metaphors is idolatry. To absorb them, imagine them, lean into them, is divine.
Read MoreHonour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. The fifth commandment, on face value, seems simple enough. But you will know that nothing, when it come to matters divine and matters human, is simple. Rich. Deep. Mysterious. Complicated. Yes.
Read MoreWars tear families apart, diseases rage, storms whip water into sheets of terror, and still, and yet, here is wondrous paradox: the great mystery we dare to name, holds us in tenderest caress, and like the sunʼs gentle warmth coaxing unripe fruit into the fullness of being, rocks us with divine dreams and whispers our true essence, pressing its heart upon us,
Read MoreAndrew Peterson is a musician, writer, and performer who has offered the world a wide range of music reflecting on the mysteries of the Christian faith. A devoted man, he seeks conversations with the divine through his music, offering up thought provoking lyrics that catch at the hearts.
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