March 4, 2022

Prayer for Ukraine You gather the children taking bits of food and blankets, having to choose within minutes what you will carry and by default all that you will lose. For some no exodus will come. Kyrie eleison. You stand armed with plowshares with grit facing the...

February 18, 2022

Image: Melanie Kyer Putting the broken back together: Lessons from a Jigsaw Puzzle Our picture of what Christmas would be like this year was broken when our son tested positive for Covid-19 and we had to stay home. We are blessed that it was a mild case, and despite...

February 4, 2022

Image: Barbara Ryther The first time I saw this little cairn on one of my walks I was surprised that such a random and precarious collection of rocks could stay safely perched on a sloping boulder, and yet week after week it was still there. As my surprise changed to...

January 20, 2022

Image: Nina Bisognani Scents and Memories  With the holidays a recent memory,the scent of cookies baking in the kitchenstill lingers in my mind.But there are other scents that remainwith me as well.  One of the most memorable of these is the scent ofOld Spice, my...

January 6, 2022

Image: Ryan Mails All Will Be Well For reasons I did not fully understand I’d been in a bad mood most of December. Yes, I’d been busy. Yes, I’d been stressed. But the busy-ness and stress were of my own creation, and normally I thrive on “Christmas Stress.” But not...

The Fourth Week of Advent

Image: Kathryn Yingst The Lamb with the Missing Leg I have always hated knickknacks. It started back when I was seven or eight, when I would visit my grandparents’ house. What is it about grandmas and knickknacks? Do their families run out of gift ideas by the golden...