How Can This Be? – Dec. 22, 2021
She had been a child who played, ate, sleptlike any other child – but unlike others,wept only for pity, laughedin joy not triumph.Compassion and intelligencefused in her, indivisible. Called to a destiny more momentousthan any in all of Time,she did not quail,only askeda simple, ‘How can this be?’and gravely, courteously,took to heart the angel’s reply,perceiving instantlythe […]
Annunciation
by Denise Levertov We know the scene: the room, variously furnished, almost always a lectern, a book; alwaysthe tall lily.Arrived on solemn grandeur of great wings,the angelic ambassador, standing or hovering,whom she acknowledges, a guest. But we are told of meek obedience. No one mentionscourage.The engendering Spiritdid not enter her without consent.God waited. She was […]
Both/And – Dec. 15, 2021
“No one gets to play Jesus. But we do get to experience Jesus in that holy place where we meet others’ needs and have our own needs met. We are all the needy and the ones who meet needs. To place ourselves or anyone else in only one category is to lie to ourselves.” –Nadia […]
Simple at the Start – Dec. 2, 2021
“Every relationship seems simple at its start. The simplicity of first love, or friendliness, the mutuality of first sympathy seems, at its initial appearance—even if merely in exciting conversation across a dinner table—to be a self-enclosed world. Two people listening to each other, two shells meeting each other, making one world between them.” —Anne Morrow […]