I spent the last several days in New Orleans at a meeting for Loyola’s adjunct faculty in their ministry extension program.  I began this role in the fall so this was my first time at their campus, even though I used to do some group facilitation for them while living in the Sacramento Diocese.  It was […]

Posted in Lent | 5 Comments »

A couple of weeks ago, in my interview with Heather Williams Durka, she used a phrase to describe her work as an artist that has stayed with me: “Serving the Mysteries.”  I was really entranced by that image, because for me the spiritual journey is not so much about growing in certainty as it is about learning […]

Posted in Creativity, Lent | 8 Comments »

I love Ash Wednesday.  We have so few rituals that are quite so earthy.  Everyone is welcome to come and receive those ashes on the forehead, that reminder that we are from dust and to dust we shall return.  It doesn’t strike me as morbid in the least, but a compelling reminder of the preciousness […]

Posted in Monastic Spirituality, Lent, Abbey Bookshelf | 7 Comments »

I have been sitting with what I am being called to practice more attentively during the Lenten season that begins tomorrow. There are lots of possibilities calling to me and I have held them in the space of my heart and listened as well as I can in the midst of what has been a […]

Posted in Lent | 9 Comments »

I was perusing Jan Richardson’s website yesterday and was reminded that she has her own hand-bound book of reflections for Lent called The Garden of Hollows: Entering the Mysteries of Lent and Easter.  I actually have a copy on my shelf which I ordered back before Advent so it is now sitting in my prayer space waiting for […]

Posted in Resources, Lent | 5 Comments »

I love the wide space of Holy Saturday.  Lingering between the suffering and death of Jesus on Friday and the vigil Saturday night proclaiming the return of the Easter fire.  For me Holy Saturday evokes much about the human condition.  The ways in which we are called to let go of things or people, identities or securities and […]

Posted in Photos, Lent | 8 Comments »

Please visit this abridged version of Peace Stations of the Cross written by Megan McKenna which I found especially beautiful and moving.  Peace to you this day as we enter into the fullness of death.

Posted in Justice Resources, Lent | No Comments »

Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal
After learning my flight was detained 4 hours,
I heard the announcement:
If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic,
Please come to the gate immediately.
Well — one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I
went there.
An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress,
Just like my grandma wore, […]

Posted in Poetry, Lent | 8 Comments »

Passover
Then you shall take some of the blood, and put it on the door posts and the lintels of the houses . . . and when I see the blood, I shall pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
-Exodus 12:7 & 13
They […]

Posted in Poetry, Lent | 8 Comments »

In Christian tradition, we entered into Holy Week yesterday.  Holy Week leads up to the Triduum, which is the highlight of the Christian year. 
As a part of my prayer and meditation this week I am reading The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Final Days in Jerusalem by Marcus Borg and John […]

Posted in Lent | 2 Comments »