by David Anderson
My definition of a saint, a spiritual giant, is someone who makes other people holy, just by their presence. Someone who engenders peace in other people’s hearts, who calls forth beauty and goodness and faithfulness in other people’s lives. Nurturing your own holiness, your own peace, calling forth your own beauty and goodness and faithfulness […]
by David Anderson 15 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Awe, Blessing, Community, Death/Dying, Faith/Trust, Grace, Letting Go, Surrender, Transformation
No, no—that’s not how you do it. That’s what I was thinking as the group began to walk the labyrinth. They were here for one of the retreats that Pam and I host here at Copper House. The leader asked if the small group of six could use the labyrinth for one of their sessions, […]
by David Anderson 9 Comments Filed Under: Community, Daily Practice, Faith/Trust, Listening, Prayer/Meditation, Surrender
It was a warm August night under the stars. The lead guitar sent a piercing, melodic riff skittering out across the crowd. We leapt to our feet, whooping, shouting. We knew this song. Ready to sing! Suddenly thousands of people were belting out a song that overwhelmed the sound of the band. Everyone was swaying, […]
by David Anderson 12 Comments Filed Under: Awe, Community, Music
We tend to approach whatever’s wrong in our lives with a discrete “fix,” even though what’s mostly called for is something wholistic, systemic. I was reminded of that mistaken tendency when I read an article by the Surgeon General, who has made loneliness a major focus of his work. Loneliness, I thought? With all the […]
by David Anderson 5 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Community, Healing, Uncategorized
Here’s Easter in two contrasting images. The first is the kind of Easter picture most of us are familiar with. It’s the lone Jesus whooshing up out of the tomb. There’s nothing wrong about the image. Jesus certainly defeated death. But, in their new book, “Resurrecting Easter,” John Dominic Crossan and Sarah Crossan identify this […]
by David Anderson 10 Comments Filed Under: Community, Grace, Heaven, Lent, Mercy
The virulent conflict we experience in our world is fueled by a need on both sides to win at all costs, to be right and—even more important—to prove others wrong. We all have the “talking points” committed to memory. We can rally the facts and marshal the stats to “take down” another person. Yet even […]
by David Anderson 5 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Awareness, Character, Community, Lent, Transformation
I was already aware of him when he walked in. He was the man whose car pulled up to the door just ahead of us, and I had hopped out quickly to get ahead of him. Who knows how deep the line is inside that door. I am on vacation in a strange town. I’ve […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Community, Grace, Gratitude, Healing, LIght, Love, Mercy
As a priest, I’ve officiated at hundreds of weddings, but Friday I attended my first Nigerian wedding. If you remember the scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, when the conservative, understated parents of the WASPy groom first meet the bride’s big, boisterous Greek family, you know how I felt walking into the banquet hall. […]
by David Anderson 7 Comments Filed Under: Change, Community, Family