Posts
Wildfire Rain
Rain is falling,thrumming, steady on the deck boards as I wake in the dark. Rain has arrived, like a nurse,in rooms of exhaustionplumping up the hard pillows of dry earth,tenderly touching the burnt boards of dreamsAnointing their fallen doorwaysreleasing the love they surrounded,to soakdeeplyinto the aching hearts of those who are bereft. It is like…
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Holy Week and Easter: Prayers on the Breath
May you risk the road and be graced by what you haven’t planned ~ I am travelling away from home during these marked days. I will be travelling to enter the delightful, loving chaos that days with children and grandchildren offer. I’ve chosen this travelling gratefully, but it opens questions in me.
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Rev. Dr. Catherine Smith
Catherine lives a life of contemplation in action. This is a way that intentionally cultivates space to notice and receive the Holy Presence in all things. From that receptive space and encounter all vital action is set in motion. This is as important for the identity and life of our churches as it is for…
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Rest and Resurrection: A Silent Retreat
“Come and find the quiet center” Day One Arrival at 4:00Pre-supper gathering Check in, introduction to our time together and preparation for silence, gathering worship.SupperEvening Prayer (15 minutes) Day Two Morning prayer (15 minutes)Breakfast11:15 a teaching (chant, lectio, visio, meditative walking, etc.) Lunch4:15 a teaching (as above)SupperEvening Prayer Day Three Morning PrayerBreakfast11:00 Gathering, Check in, concluding…
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The telling of children
On the news we hear that two Israeli children, held hostage by Hamas, but also by Isreal in its avid pursuit of genocide. Perhaps they were murdered by Hamas, perhaps they died of starvation like many Palestinian children. Food and health care are both more than scarce. The death of these children is heart-breaking news. …
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Fireworks and the Darkness
I love to watch fireworks. They pull me into a place of awe.Standing in the darkness, I am watching for pure delight. Colour shot into the ordinary dark,for nothing but celebration,holds something of the transformative qualities of play. Fireworks remind me that life is about more than the practical,the explicable,the next task,the next outcome,the managed moment,the…
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A Candlemas Prayer and Reflection
February 2nd is a day of many names, Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation and a new one to me this year; the feast of Holy Encounter. I like that. It’s also World Wetlands Day and of course Groundhog Day. It’s the first two in the list I want to linger with here. A candle lit…
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Advent Ember Days: The Time of Tender Light
(The Wednesday, Friday & Saturday following St. Lucy’s Day which falls on December 13th.) This is an excerpt from the Advent/December section of the resource Entwining: Ember Days and the Circling Seasons. It is the first day of three in this season. You can read more about Ember Days here. You can purchase the complete…
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Guided Lectio Divina
Lectio Divina, Divine or Sacred Reading is a way of prayer that uses a text as a portal to receptive stillness. Scripture, poetry, a paragraph of writing, even your life can be a text. When you’ve chosen a text you can listen below to be guided through the movements. Lectio Divina Divine Reading Whatever the…
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Grief Should Have It’s Day
This for many of us is a gut blow of a day. It’s hard to catch a breath. The very air we move in seems heavy. We’re frightened and full of grief. Perhaps too full of grief to be angry, though that may come. Or numbness, that may come too, even more numbness than we’ve…
Read MoreWhat I hope for . . .
Today,the fading fibre of my fatherheavy-makes my heart. And there is more. The thick, malignant possibilityof a draining democracy;the stoppers all are out. Circles more and more of politicians’ speechand less of limbless children,mothers’ gasping griefand fathers’ dust-covered diggingwith no end. We hear breaking news that is broken,thin,repetitive.It is hoped, by some, perhaps,manageable. But what…
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Hallowing What Shines Through
It’s early morning and the sky is a thinning dark; the sense of light is in it. It is a familiar long loved fabric washed over and over, the colour under the colour showing through. It is the first of the Hallows Days, the Triduum of Thin Days. Hallows, according to etymonline comes from Old…
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Ember Days and the Time of Creation
I am so grateful that the denomination of which I am a part has over the years come to honour the liturgical seasons of the church year. It seems to me that each has something to offer and to elicit in the circling movement of my life with the Holy One. I love being part…
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Soft Blossoming Within
These days it feels as though touch is ever more important. I need the soft mulch of the labyrinth under my feet, the cool rain drops left on the deck, the stone in my hand, the basil picked for the sauce. In the midst of the torrent images of war, and genocide, floods, fires and…
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