Reflections
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Fall as the Season of Hope
Every year, the start of a new baseball season rallies optimism with a phrase from an Alexander Pope poem: Hope springs eternal. This phrase was more fitting for me at […]
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Be Still and Know that I am God! – Psalm 46:10
I’ve had a lifetime of excellent spiritual directors (… I know, it hardly shows!) Several of them had the same prescription for me: Be still! I’ve gotten a little better […]
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“Lord, Teach Us to Pray …”
In the gospel of Luke (11:2-4) the disciples make this request after recovering Jesus from one of his many escapes from the crowd into private prayer. Jesus gives them what […]
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Blackbird Singing on a Morning Drive
Usually, I listen to music or news in my car; the exception is early Sunday morning’s commute to church. The silent drive provides me a fitting time for prayer and […]
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Ministry of Presence
My seminary training included a robust field education program. In one semester two of us spent an afternoon/evening every week at a residential treatment center for girls. These girls were […]
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Sacred Times, Sacred Places
As a young adult in seminary, I had an aversion for hospitals, its smells, and rows of debilitated people. Simply entering one made me squeamish. I couldn’t imagine myself attending […]
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Newark Sunset
It was to be nothing special: a fifteen-minute train ride from Newark Penn Station to New York Penn Station. I had done it many times. The late afternoon NJ Transit […]
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Praying with the Eagle
One summer evening I went out to pray. I took my usual patio chair against the house facing the back of my yard. Suddenly (what I think was) a golden […]
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In Every Season
My hard-working, faithful, and loving dad had a pessimism that was often comical. Shortly after starting our summer vacation, he would soberly remark “Yeah, the days are getting shorter now,” […]
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Let’s Dance!
Bill Shakespeare, meet Chuck Berry. It’s like trying to tell a stranger about rock n’ roll. John Sebastian penned this memorable phrase in attempt to describe the exhilarating power of […]