A new year provides an opportunity for a renewed focus on spiritual practices. New Year resolutions have never attracted my attention. Maybe this is because when we make them in January, we begin with gusto only to quit our resolve by mid-February. Never do they seem to continue past March. And yet, there is something about the start of a new year as an opportunity to mark a new beginning by trying some new practice or observe some new attitude that might just improve our health, our..
Standing at the front of the church, a young couple takes their vows and soon the recessional music signals their new journey as wife and husband has begun. I can recall..
Love… a simple word but such a staggeringly complex idea to put into action. As we approach the fourth Sunday in Advent when we will light the candle of love, let’s..
My memories of childhood Christmases blur together. Each year was much the same: the whole family trimming the tree, my brother and I decorating Christmas cookies, and..
When I went to seminary in my forties, I learned the pure pleasure and joy of studying scripture with my heart wide open. I read the familiar passages, and I surely..
It is often said that a contented person is the one who finds joy in the small, little, simple things of life.
Imagine my chagrin. In my high school days (oh my – that was over 70 years ago!) I thought I invented a word.
While sacrifice is often portrayed as something grand, I believe it doesn’t have to be. I've come to see it as a quieter concept, rooted in the small, everyday choices..
I wasn’t expecting to lose anything. It was the summer before I started high school and as far as I was concerned, life was normal but with an edge of excitement that..
This past summer, my husband John and I left our suburban Cleveland home to visit John’s sister Mary and her husband Joe in the small college town of Goshen, Indiana...
