This week we celebrate Epiphany, when the magi were drawn to the house where the child Jesus could be found. I truly doubt that they knew why they were kneeling by those little feet and giving precious gifts to someone so small, but I like to think their hearts were softened by the trip and the unexplainable longing that drove them there, and they could … Continue reading Stars
She thought herself unnoticed, ordinary until the gaze of Joseph lit a flame of love and new awareness in her spirit, an inner warming when he said her name. And then a shocking, wondrous invitation, a privilege and burden never sought. The fiery figure offered explanation: her humble self was hearth divinely wrought. The darkness of our weary lives is broken, our waking dreams found … Continue reading Annunciations
I’m posting a poem I wrote last winter, because today’s O Antiphon leading up to Christmas is “O Oriens” which means O Dayspring. This one was published in Lyrical Iowa 2021. Incarnation at Dawn The dark tendrils of the old maple are framed as a detail within the angles of the sunroom window. The blue beyond them is a canvas light-years deep. Such is the … Continue reading “O Dayspring”
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what … Continue reading Advent 2021: Mary
Annunciation to Joseph Steady, old boy. You can believe your eyes. Admit it. This is not unfamiliar, this mystic hope that shimmered in the shadows that day as the sawdust settled under your restless feet. You can believe what her ears heard, what she told you, how the messenger revealed the mystery’s shape hidden within her innate devotion. You can do this. The raw material … Continue reading Advent 2021: Joseph
I couldn’t tell you when it went absent without leave but one day I noticed it was gone. The last shred of possibility slipped out the door. You adjust. The sadness becomes mortar for a wall just high enough to keep the dream from getting in finding its old place where it fit in so well until it didn’t. We resigned ourselves to a good … Continue reading Advent: Elizabeth
In Advent we realize that the birth of Jesus is part of a bigger story, thousands of years long and eternal in scope. It includes the prophecies of people like Isaiah, who lived 2800 years ago, centuries before Jesus appeared on the scene. He was an ordinary man whom God tapped to be a prophet in Judah. Judah was a small nation with mighty nations … Continue reading Advent 2021: Isaiah
What is the heft of a quiet life that her grandchildren carry today? More than the weight of a mother and wife as they solemnly march to her grave. They bear the imprint of soft, storied arms from her lifelong earnest art honed by the tasks of family and farm and a gentle, loving heart. Heavy their hearts as the memories gel and the tears … Continue reading Pallbearing
I Arrive Late I arrive late. The avian chorus is halfway through the morning program. Tiny wrens trilling, crows demanding attention, a catbird offering its scratchy exaltation. The cardinal’s whistle, occasional and sweet. Their song and the stillness they celebrate accomplish my intention, the daily challenge of heart-opening that requires study, prayer, writing, the diligent quest for communion with the divine. The birds don’t know … Continue reading Morning Inspiration
A re-telling of Luke 5:17-26 Even though the house was already crowded, when the elders arrived, they were given front row seats, where the teacher was telling curious stories about seeds and banquets and quarreling brothers. A Pharisee was posing a convoluted question when falling debris gave them just enough warning to avoid the chunk of ceiling that barely missed Jesus himself. The dust cleared … Continue reading Healing 101
saint sinner seeker 