While we can inhabit holy spaces, scripture reveals that the holy inhabits us as well. God puts the holy law within us. God writes on our hearts. God cleans us from the inside out. As we consider holy spaces along this Lenten journey, we must recognize that our very bodies are holy spaces because God…
I am notoriously bad with directions. My ability to get lost has amazed and astounded my friends throughout the years. Some of them have found out the hard way that just because I’ve been somewhere before does not mean I know how to get there again. For that matter, just because I’ve gotten somewhere does…
Lent was a fairly new concept for me when I was in college, and one year I decided to make the ultimate sacrifice—chocolate. I still remember standing in the ice cream parlor, looking at the luscious rocky road and chocolate swirl and brownie chunk ice cream–and choosing butter pecan. Butter pecan. Such is the suffering…
In the Celtic spiritual tradition, people refer to “thin places”–spaces where the veil between the Divine and the earthly is especially thin; places where you can easily have a sense of the holy, a feeling of connection to God. There are places commonly recognized as thin, as holy. The places where Jesus is said to…
Creative Prayer Experience You will need a piece of brown paper; pen, colored pencils or markers; collage materials if desired Cut or tear a cross shape from the piece of brown card stock. On one side of the cross, write, draw, or collage the burdens that you feel you are carrying. On the other side…
As spiritual descendants of Abraham and Sarah and as followers of Jesus, we live within the holy space of covenant–of God’s promises to us and our promises to God. It might seem on the surface that this holy space of covenant is restrictive. We cannot step outside the boundary of the covenant. We must be…
Read Mark 1:9-15 Choose six words related to baptism and use these words as a basis for a poem. You can write a free form poem, or perhaps use the words to inspire a few haikus. (A haiku is a 3-line poem where the first line has five syllables, the second line has 7 syllables,…
*This reflection is inspired by the Lectionary readings for this week: Genesis 9:8-17 and Mark 1:9-15. The reflection comes from the Lenten Retreat I wrote a few years ago. – – – – – – – The first time I went water skiing–when I was in college–I was a little worried. I’m not particularly athletic,…
Three years ago I developed a creative arts Lenten retreat based on the Revised Common Lectionary passage. And guess what? The Lectionary has cycled back around to those same passages this year! So I will be sharing from that retreat material throughout Lent: scripture reflections, visual art prayer practices and creative writing prayer practices. The…
In preparing for Ash Wednesday and this weekend’s Lenten retreat I haven’t found a lot of time to blog. Thought I would share the offertory prayer we will be using for Lent this year. God of the Cross, in losing our lives we find them in you. In sharing our money and time, we receive…
Spacious Faith 