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Desire, Perseverance, Making Our Way: Reflections from the Monastic Retreat

Desire, Perseverance, Making Our Way: Reflections from the Monastic Retreat

Desire, Perseverance, Making Our Way Reflections from the Monastic Retreat On a Sunday evening in mid-June, the annual Community Retreat began at St. Paul’s Monastery.  The Sisters assembled in their usual places in the glowing Chapel, lit by the summer sky in the clerestory windows, joined by several Oblates, Benedictine Associates, and me.  The white…
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Transformative Change: Letting God Set the Agenda

Transformative Change: Letting God Set the Agenda

CONTENT CREDIT: This article first appeared at www.pivotpointministries.org and is reprinted with permission. Transformative Change Letting God Set the Agenda When it comes to the human condition and a desire to change, we can become easily frustrated: we think that we want to change . . . but we really don’t. Paul expresses this contradiction…
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Cooling Anger and Warming Sadness

Cooling Anger and Warming Sadness

Cooling Anger and Warming Sadness When we are intensely angry it becomes hard to see straight. Conversely, the low drag of sadness can leave us with too little energy to pay much attention. So, for the sake of those in the thick of these emotions, we’ll get straight to the point. Recently a circle of people…
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Retreat: Making Time to Remember Our Belovedness

Retreat: Making Time to Remember Our Belovedness

Retreat Making Time to Remember Our Belovedness Life’s challenges have a way of growing up all around us. I sometimes picture myself standing in a field surrounded by weeds I cannot see over. I do my best to push them out of the way, look around them, and pretend like they are not there. But,…
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Sabbath: Well-being, Not Endless Work

Sabbath: Well-being, Not Endless Work

While modern Christians do not often practice Sabbath as regularly as our Jewish brothers and sisters, we still need times when we set aside our task lists to remember that we are created in the image of a God who rested after amazing acts of creation. We need times to step outside of our regular work routines and remember that we are “human beings,” not just “human doings.” These times remind us we are beloved just as we are and that God’s love does not depend on us producing or creating or doing anything.

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Poem: The Uncluttered Mind

Poem: The Uncluttered Mind

Before my mind is overcome / by news of the world’s woe, / I want to think of water, / fresh, cold water, cascading /
over shelves of jagged rock / and falling like skeins of rich silk. . .

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A New Story

A New Story

This reflection was written in response to an experience at the Benedictine Center called "Divine Spark: Kindling the Fires of Ministry." A New Story Light from Your presence Sparks my soul The spark and careful tending start a small flame Writing, reflection, good conversation partners, prayer and lectio breathe life into the flame The challenges…
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My Day with the Sacred Fire

My Day with the Sacred Fire

My Day with the Sacred Fire Forever ago, it seems, I financed my way through seminary with a long stint as a custodian at a religious college. I remember one large meeting where I was pushing my trash cart outside the venue while sensing the vibrancy and boisterous energy inside. It was a tough moment—heartbreaking,…
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Saturated with Peace: Experiencing Personal Retreat

Saturated with Peace: Experiencing Personal Retreat

Saturated with Peace: Experiencing Personal Retreat I’m not sure what I was seeking over a decade ago, when I signed up for a 24 hour “teacher’s retreat” at St. Paul’s Monastery. It was mid-August, my time to squeeze in one more week of summer’s leisure pace before the craziness of teaching three grade levels in…
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Faithfulness: The Difference Spiritual Direction Can Make

Faithfulness: The Difference Spiritual Direction Can Make

Peter Watkins began to learn faithfulness through his first experience with a spiritual director thirty years ago. Today he is himself a spiritual director and tells the story of the difference those conversations made in his life. Faithfulness The Difference Spiritual Direction Can Make I had never heard of spiritual direction until I joined the…
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