Made for Freedom – May 9, 2023
“We are not made for resignation. Passive acceptance is not the code written into our spirit. If that were true, as a species, we would have vanished long ago. Instead, for millennia, we have shaken off the temptation to simply accept reality and the demand that we bend the knee, and we have stood up to […]
Questions in the Dark
My Lenten practice this year is to notice what questions arise in the dark, either in my dreams or wakeful times. Sleep seems to filter out the trivia, and I discover what my real questions are. Some arise from worries, of course. Others involve long-forgotten incidents, odd dream encounters, and shards of conversation that I […]
Do More, Be More, Have More
Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted there. Right after his glorious confirmation, right after being assured of his place and purpose—“This is my beloved, in whom I am well pleased”—Jesus faces the wilderness. Great assurance, followed by great difficulty. Is it possible we heard wrong our calling? […]
Underneath
Beneath the feet of the monks, that which holds them and their houses of prayer, is this land. Mepkin Abbey, a Trappist monastery on the coast of South Carolina, is where we’re on retreat. The land of my childhood. Beneath the years of their prayerful songs, as old as my dad, there is that which will outlast […]
