I was inspired to share this reflection on Mary as Mother of Mercy by the brave words of Bishop Mariann Budde speaking truth to power: Holy Mary, mother of us all,we see a world filled with violence toward one another,we ask for mercy.We see children and the elderly dwelling in poverty,we ask for mercy.We see the earth being slowly choked and poisoned,we ask for mercy.We live in a culture that values people onlyfor what they produce and achieve,we ask for mercy.We recognize the ways our ownmoment by moment choices contributeto the above realities, we ask for mercyIn your gracious mercy

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, We have two free gifts for you today! It is with great joy that we start to release the video podcasts of our Love of Thousands Prayer Cycle this week. The theme for our Day 1 morning prayer is the archangels and for evening is the guardian angels. Here one of the prayers of concern for morning written by our Wisdom Council member Claudia Love Mair: “Creator/Creatrix, you sent the Archangel Gabriel to visit Mary and herald the arrival of Jesus. Send them to us that we may give birth to music, dance, and art, to

I was invited to join Christine Sine on her podcast The Liturgical Rebels to have a conversation about Celtic spirituality, living with chronic illness, and my newest book A Midwinter God.  * * *  The Liturgical Rebels podcast is for spiritual seekers who no longer feel comfortable with a traditional approach to Christian religious observances. It empowers followers of Jesus to creatively reconstruct their faith and spiritual practices.  * * * Christine Valters Paintner shares her journey through life, which she describes as reminiscent of the Celtic saints. She discusses her experiences living in different places, including Ireland, and the

Christine was interviewed on the Faith Conversations podcast with Anita Lustrea about her latest book, A Midwinter God. In their conversation they talk about how we deal with darkness and grief in our culture and realize those moments are actually the path of true prayer. Listen to the podcast here.

A Blessing for the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi*Wild and dancing God, you gave us the example of Francisto show us what it means to embody love on Earth.He danced in celebration of everything that you created:the sun, moon, stars, water, wind, earth, and fire,he called them each brother or sister,he cherished the birds, the wolf, and the grasshopper,and even Death became an intimate companion,a teacher of how precious life is.Francis saw the whole world as his monastery,as the place where your sacred presenceshimmers forth like silver.Give us the courage to follow his exampleof holy foolishness, to find our