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Spiritual practices are activities we engage (usually routinely) in order to intentionally cultivate spiritual growth.  These activities run the gamut – worship, prayer, spiritual reading, interceding for neighbors during a walk, drawing mandalas, being in nature to inspire wonder.  Our…

Today, May 13th is celebrated as the feast day of Julian of Norwich in the Roman Catholic Church – May 8th in Lutheran and Anglican churches. Julian was a lay woman who, in the 1300’s, dedicated herself to God —…

Functional Atheism.  Though he never formally employs those words, I was first introduced to the concept by Craig Groeshel in his book, The Christian Atheist: Believing in God But Living as If He Doesn’t Exist.  (Here, Groeshel might have given…

The shepherd walks right up to the gate… and the sheep recognize his voice.  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he gets them all out,  he leads them and they follow because they are…

Years ago I was fascinated to read Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees: What they Feel, How They Communicate.  The following BBC News piece succinctly depicts the way trees “communicate” and share resources – making for a most fascinating…

A mailing last week not only publicized our most recent issue of Ruminations (focused on “Whole-Life, Life-Long Stewardship”) but also commended a few practical handles for self-care which we thought might be useful to individuals and congregations amidst this “wilderness”…

In some church circles, stewardship is narrowly defined as reduced to “that thing for the church budget.” Little wonder that “that [usually Fall] thing for the church budget” has too many times been called a congregation’s “Stewardship Campaign.” Biblically speaking,…

Surveying all the Gospel texts about/for Easter, one verse stands out above all the others for me this year. John 20:19 begins: “On the evening of that first day of the week, the disciples were together, with the doors locked…

Lately, I’ve been giving myself to a study-exploration of St. Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle – and commentaries thereof.  Hers is a variation of – perhaps, we might say, a forerunner to — current “stages of faith” conversations.  In keeping…