Finding Your Soul by David Anderson
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Breathing with Brother Ronald
Poosh goes the little oxygen tank. Every three seconds, a little burst of air forced through the clear plastic tubes running around his ears and under his nose. I am sitting in the chapel of Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, New York. After the long chanting of Psalms we rest in silence. That’s when…
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Thinking Big Enough
“If your life’s work can be accomplished in your lifetime, you’re not thinking big enough.” -Wes Jackson Those words gave me pause—a big pause. I read them in an article about sustainable agriculture (as a South Dakota native it’s sad to see the systematic poisoning of the earth as the basis for our agri-business). Wes…
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Abba Moses and the Leaky Jug
Yesterday I sat in the second pew at St. Stephen’s church in Richmond, Virginia. There to speak later in the morning, I was worshiping at the 9 o’clock Eucharist. My friend Gary Jones preached—masterfully—on that well-known parable from Luke. Two men go up to the temple to pray, a Pharisee and a tax collector. The…
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Helen Keller and F-a-l-l
Where I live, the trees are in beautiful death swoons, immolating in falling flames of red and gold, orange and brown. Last week, after I finished my morning run I walked the rest of the way home. A few feet from the front door I noticed—the glory all around me! How had I run through…
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GRATTITUDE (with two T’s)
This from a friend: I take the MetroNorth railroad from CT to NYC every day and have seen this billboard which just says, “GRATTITUDE” right above the Sin City Gentleman’s Club at 125th Street in Harlem for probably years now and have always wondered what it meant. Googled it this morning, and this is the…
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Unexpected Messenger
Often God uses someone—or something—as an unexpected messenger. On Wednesday morning I came into the office and started working—fast. Sunday we had forty stewardship visitors coming to pick up their packets and . . . the “packet” was mostly a figment. I walked into my assistant’s office and started ticking off the critical components we…
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Life and Death Lunch
I love to eat. But make it fast. So, along with twenty-five of my colleagues at a recent clergy conference, I grumble when we are told that at lunch today we will begin with an exercise in mindful eating. We are to get our food from the buffet, sit and wait for everyone to begin…
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“Obsessed” With Abortion, Homosexuality and Birth Control
The church is “obsessed” with abortion, homosexuality and birth control. That comment by Pope Francis a few days ago made global headlines. It’s no mistake that all three bugbears are physical, of the body, sexual. Little-mind religion seizes on the carnal sins and makes avoiding them a cardinal virtue. That’s because it is mostly preoccupied…