Content warning: infant death, suicide, alcoholism In the middle of my own present stress and grief, I am the kind of person who needs a dispatch from someone who has been in the same place and can report on the lay of the land. Even if we are not on the same path or in… Read More
Saturday Prayer: Scattered and broken
Oh Holy One, We are broken and scattered. Our hearts are crushed. We see the debris of lives before us, tossed about with indifference and violence. We see the carnage of prejudice and bigotry. We are grieving. We stare at the broken bodies, the tearful families, the aches that cannot be eased, the posturing and… Read More
Friday Prayer
For those who are out of words for praying- Those who stare off into the middle distance, too tired for sentences or sense. Those whose grief is too deep for anything but sobs and deafening silence. Those who have poured out for others with very little available to fill themselves.Those who have deconstructed lies they were told… Read More
Friday Prayer
There are things that happen that are unthinkable, but not unimaginable. We are able to imagine them, but we push them away because we do not want to think about them. What is unimaginable is living after the unthinkable. Holy and merciful God, we pray with broken hearts for all who are living- breath by… Read More
Pastoral is Political: Near the Cross Was Mary Weeping
I’ve found myself drawn to images of the Marys at the foot of the cross. Death, particularly the death of someone you love, is hard to watch. I suppose it is a natural human instinct to look away or to hide from the grief and horror before you. It takes a spiritual hardiness to remain… Read More
Friday Festival: Connections, Broken and Whole
Our bloggers are guiding our minds to the connections of the heart this week. Turning from weariness to gratitude, Kristin Berkey-Abbott notices a parallel between herself and the living things in the garden, “The milkweed is blooming this week–these are plants that have been eaten back to bare stalks several times since I bought them… Read More
Narrative Lectionary: Permission to Lament (Ruth 1:1-17)
Lament has been on my mind quite a bit lately. I carry it deep within my heart and right on the edge from where my tears pool. I feel it in my spirit, in the tightness of all of my muscles and within the stiffness of my too often clenched jaw. Maybe it’s because I… Read More
Tuesday Prayer
My heart continues to sting from losing my dad, peaceful God. My soul is not quite as vivacious, and the innocence I felt before his death has drifted away. Grief robs us of possibilities of the future. Grief fogs up the lens we use to see the world. Our universe is smaller and sadder. Pour… Read More
Friday Festival: Relationships Reconsidered
With honesty and tenderness, our bloggers are considering relationships this week – with God, with Jesus, with our stuff and with a lamented mother, who has just died. The hard work of stopping the rush of her life has Sally Coleman thinking about where God is inviting her to sing a new song. “I have… Read More
Thursday Prayer: hear our weeping
What cannot be said will be wept – a quote attributed to Sappho You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your record? -Psalm 56: 8 O God, when words fail hear our weeping. Hear our weeping, treasure our tears, answer our cry. Amen. … Read More
