Reflections

  • The Blessings of Cancer, My Unwelcome Visitor

    The News No word has such power, such toxicity, such association with loss and death as “cancer.” This is despite the fact that many people survive or live with cancer […]

  • Musings on Prayer from a Former English Teacher

    In a former lifetime I taught English grammar to high school freshman. Grammar may seem irrelevant, but our choice of words and usage shapes meaning, which in turn influences our […]

  • Thomas – The Gospel’s Bill Buckner

    Like the Bible, baseball history is filled with great stories– like that of Bill Buckner. Though short of Hall of Fame qualifications, his 22-season career boasted a .289 batting average […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • “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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]