Lent
Call me captain obvious, but I’m finding (once again) that there is nothing pretty about entering Lent. Beautiful? Absolutely. Growing? Definitely. Palatable? Less so.
This morning already, even while chocolate cookies bake for fat Tuesday, I’m mentally readying myself for the stark season we embark on tomorrow, and even the mundane to-do list smacks of little deaths and resurrections:
Read MoreThere is something greater than Jonah here. –Matthew 12:41 Let me tell you something about Jonah. I have a love/hate relationship with him. Not that he isn’t a great Prophet or anything. It’s just that irritation we recognize as a result of *those* people who remind us of our own faults. They rub us the […]
Read MoreI don’t mean to brag, but we eat a lot of leftovers in this house. Don’t get me wrong, none of them are Pinterest-worthy. I blame it on my work-study job in the school cafeteria, and my days of ‘gleaning’ groceries at their pull date to feed a large volunteer group. I can work with just about […]
Read MoreEsther, Ruth, Naomi, Rachel, Elizabeth, Anna, Hannah, Sarah–I love learning about these mothers of our faith! I love thinking about the women who have gone before us. And, I aspire to learn from them. Blame it on my old soul. In the spirit of matriarchs, I decided to forgo the perfectly curated greenery image for this post, […]
Read MoreThe season of Lent is often referred to as a journey or a desert—a place to be navigated as foreigners on the search. The Old Testament stories remind us that there is no preparing for the events that unfold, or how they unfold in our own hearts. I’ve mentioned it before, but if you need […]
Read MoreAs I sit down to write, my husband is refereeing the battle going on upstairs between sisters—it seems an appropriate time to reflect gratefully on the next week we’ll have together with no school. I don’t have a sister, so this is my first formal taste of the squabbling, and whew! It is fierce and […]
Read MoreAs I write, the spring sun chasing snow from the shadows of our yard. We’re tending four, adolescent chickens in our basement until it is warm enough to send them outside. Fellow bee club members are offering a crash-course in swarm-catching as my beloved beehive succumbed to a mite infestation last week. I’m devouring Christie […]
Read More(This is a real time conversation in my head that began on Good Friday and continues inconveniently and honestly, into the Easter season). Connecting with Scripture A wise woman I know leads Advent retreats in which she invites retreatants to imagine the role that they might play in the nativity story and anything is fair game– […]
Read MoreA prayer for approaching Triduum: This is where it seems to hinge, my resolve is weak. The season of sparsity has drug on. The voices in my head and the voices of the past, quiver,’Why have you abandoned me?’ Feelings of loneliness and doubt linger reminders of brokenness, abound. Trudging toward Triduum I join the […]
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