Vital Posts / Prayer & Reflection

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  • Thanksgiving: Giving Thanks to the Giver Good ✓
    Thanksgiving, or giving thanks, as a form of prayer, is technically the church’s principle act of worship, week after week, Sunday after Sunday, and in many places, like this Monastery, day after day. The Eucharist is itself an extended prayer of…
  • I do my filing once a year whether I need to or not.... ✓
    I just booked the cottage at our diocesan retreat center on the Olympic Peninsula for my annual Advent filing marathon retreat. In a 36-hour period in a beautiful relaxed setting accompanied by French-roast coffee in the morning and a good red wine…
  • The Blues
    I have realized that Easter season is not the time for me to study the blues. Luckily, Holy Week provided the richest setting for singing the blues that our tradition holds. Here is the play list from my new album Holy Week Blues. Cut #1 Sing…
  • Stuck in a Rut?
    Ever wonder why we can’t get out of this rut? Maybe it’s a question you’ve asked as you went to the same job, in the same place, after leaving the same house and the same family so often it feels like life has no more zest. Why do I feel …
  • The Final (Meatless) Friday of Lent
    For a final Lenten meal reflection, I returned to a book my priest Father Peter gave me as a new Episcopalian: Your Faith, Your Life by Jenifer Gamber. Often during Holy Week, I experience a personal transformation that really connects me to Christ…
  • When in Rome
    My wife El and I completed the Italian portion of our sabbatical time with a one-day trip to Rome, the Eternal City. While she napped I walked my favorite piazzas and visited my favor monuments, including the Arch of Peace newly re-assembled. It wa…
  • The Sixth [meatless] Friday of Lent
  • Taize
    I have just completed a one-week retreat at the Taize monastery in south east France. I leave here rested, centered, and hopeful. My church hosts a Taize service each Sunday evening at 6 pm and as part of my sabbatical travels I wanted to come …
  • The Fourth [Meatless] Friday of Lent
    I have always had an interest in the faith practices of the Amish community, and find certain aspects of the culture surprising and even counter-intuitive. The degree of freedom offered to Amish children—both in decisions surrounding marriage and…
  • A Free Man in Paris
    I have begun phase two of my sabbatical journeys, the portion to be spent in France and Italy. I touched down in Paris and within 36 hours I drank in as much of the city as I possibly could in my first visit here. With my museum pass in hand and a …
  • The Crater of Creation
    The end of my sabbatical time in Africa was spent on a safari through the north of Tanzania. I was able to traverse the Serengeti during the great migration, witness a lion kill in the Ngorangoro Crater, and see endless herds of elephants and giraf…
  • The Third [Meatless] Friday in Lent
    Embrace each day with joy Give thanks for gift of life Living in borrowed time In simple joy, delight - Victor P. Gendrano In this borrowed time, there are some of us who eat for both survival and and some who eat for pleasure. I was c…
  • Cole’s Blessing
    In the Episcopal Church we have a lovely service for House Blessings. Often when someone moves to a new home they will ask their family and friends to gather and one of the parish clergy will come with special prayers of blessing and sprinkle holy …
  • The Second [Meatless] Friday of Lent
    My college was adjacent to St. Stephen’s in Newport News, Virginia. This is how I found—and fell for—the Episcopal Church. I befriended the rector, who later drove over seven hours to marry Andrew and me in Baltimore. Among the many wise and …
  • Aspects of Offering
    In their book Celebrating the Offering, brothers and Methodist ministers Melvin and James Amerson assert that offerings of prayer, presence, gifts, and service are all required to be good stewards. This must have been in the back of my mind whe…
  • Birds of the air, lilies of the field
    In yesterday’s blog post on ECF Vital Practices, Richelle Thompson shared an effective practice for starting a meeting. She described how one facilitator asked each person to share their favorite story from scripture. This simple practice turned ou…
  • Accountability in Community.
    A month into our move the shininess has worn off, and we’re beginning to call this home – and the other place, “where we used to live.” Now comes the hard part of making friends and building community. Last week our church held …
  • Digital Direction
    All of us at ECF Vital Practices tend toward the practical. When writing about communications technologies, we are focused on helping congregations use these new tools, whether it’s creating dynamic Facebook pages, improving e-newsletters, claiming…
  • Prayer: A Spacious Place
    The last few months my girlfriend has been dealing with nerve pain and I’ve been only intermittently employed. It’s been difficult for both of us, filled with uncertainty and frustration. There were sleepless nights and weeks during which we had …
  • Daily Invitation
    This weekend I’ll be giving up my life as a “resident companion.” It’s been almost two years that I’ve lived alongside the Community of the Holy Spirit, a religious order of nuns, at their farm in Brewster, NY. One of the things I’v…
  • Reading the Bible?
    Scott Gunn’s Jan 2, 2012 Seven whole days blog post brought the Bible Challenge back into my consciousness. The concept is simple: Read the Bible in a year by following the Bible Challenge’s formula of reading the books of the Bible “in seque…
  • Small Changes, Big Impacts
    With the start of 2012, many people - including myself - are considering ways to improve their health and well-being. Resolutions will be made and, if research on New Year’s resolutions is any indication, nearl…
  • What We Leave Behind
    I pull out my diocesan credit card and survey the moving boxes. As I slide the card to the salesman, I'm distracted, calculating how many boxes I might need for my office. The salesman looks closely at the card. You have the same name as Bish…
  • Dashed Expectations
    In the post-Christmas debrief with friends and family, a theme has emerged: dashed expectations. What happened this year? I celebrated Christmas with my in-laws at their Roman Catholic parish. With a toddler in the family this year, we decided …
  • The Christmas Challenge
    On Christmas you and I will hear a story alleging the Creator and Ruler of the Universe decided to come to earth to become human – a lofty, controversial, and near-preposterous claim, for sure. Nonetheless, we will notice that God does not do…
  • The Christmas Creche
    My family thinks I’m silly. When I set up the Creche in early December, only the shepherds and the animals appear. A few days before Christmas, Mary and Joseph arrive, and on Christmas morning, the baby Jesus appears. The three kings? The…
  • Gift of Presence
    I realize, as I get older, that one of the best gifts is the gift of presence. Last night I visited a friend, in part to drop off Christmas packages for her kids. This past year I’ve had a habit of spending many Tuesday nights at their house.…
  • Elf on a Shelf -- and Control
    I’ve heard tell of some who dismiss the Elf on a Shelf as crass marketing. They think it’s creepy for an abnormally long-limbed doll with a plastic head and black oval eyes to keep watch by day and report to Santa by night. But at our ho…
  • Advent: Anticipation and Disappointment?
    What do you do when you no longer like your favorite Christmas cookie? Peppermint candy cane cookies: I’ve made them for almost 30 years and can’t imagine a Christmas without them. Two and a half sticks of butter, a cup of confectionary suga…
  • Preparing for Advent/Best Kept Secrets
    "I've got something for the girls of Savannah, and all of America, and all the world, and we're going to start it tonight!" Many women reading this may recognize this famous quote from Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA.…
  • Saints Among Us
    By the end of the baptism, confirmations, and receptions, Martha leans like a book against a shelf. She has stood this whole time, while 10-day-old David enters into the household of God. Her walker sits in the aisle, and she clutches onto th…
  • There's a Saint for That
    Okay. I confess. All Saints Day in The Episcopal Church has always struck me as a bit bland. Sure I know the official line: that All Saints Day is when we honor the martyrs, preachers, teachers and everyday witnesses whose examples we seek to foll…
  • Exploring Gratitude – on Facebook!
    The best thing about my job as editor of ECF Vital Practices is being able to share good/interesting things happening in our church. I recently received a Facebook message from Stefani Schatz, a friend from my days at Episcopal Divinity School: …
  • Roscoe and the Widow's Mite
    Roscoe opens his hand to reveal the pair of earrings. The tarnished hoops look small in his calloused hands. I found these in one of the trash bags I was sorting through, he tells me. I cleaned ‘em up real good for you. I take t…
  • Regrets?
    The heavy conversation starts out, as is often the case, on a light note. Mommy, why aren’t you eating your toast? It’s the last piece, I answer. I want to see if you are still hungry before I eat it. My 7-year-old son ponders t…
  • An Unexpected Gift
    A crew from Calvary, Ashland, Ky., was supposed to be rolling in late last night, weary but exhilarated from a train trip to Washington, D.C., part pilgrimage to the National Cathedral, part journey on historic rail cars. But first there was …
  • Marking 9/11
    With the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon falling on a Sunday next month, most churches are developing some way to respond. At St. Andrew’s, Seattle, we will hold a service of Light and Remembrance on the eve…
  • The Bible Challenge
    Note: Check out Marek's Tip Sheet for creating a Bible Challenge in your own congregation. Episcopalians take pride in reading more scripture aloud in church on Sunday than most denominations, but few Episcopalians have read the entire Bib…
  • Who do you say that I am?
    Can you be Christian all by yourself?  If you never go to church and you never talk about your faith and you never mention Jesus in any of your relationships, are you a Christian? I’m not sure. To me, the living out of our Christiani…
  • Being and Doing
    As our congregation gears up for a very busy fall, I am struck once again by the dynamic of “being” versus “doing.” As a die-hard activist I always have to be reminded that our state of being is just as important as what we accomplish. …
  • God Moments
    In college my friends and I became fond of saying “God works in the Housing Office.” As I entered my sophomore year and returned to a small suite of rooms in the dorm, I realized an immediate connection with the two first-year students plac…
  • Giving In
    I give in. I’ve got nothin’. That’s what I’ve been thinking lately when it comes to writing this blog. It’s mid summer. Last week in New York (and in many other parts of the US) temperatures approached 100 degrees and I feel as if my …
  • A Discerning Heart
    Discernment: it’s not about ordination to the priesthood. Outside the church I’m not sure people consciously talk much about “discernment.” But in our Episcopal Church, “discernment” often becomes shorthand for the process someone goes …
  • Drawing Heaven
    “Heaven, oh heaven….” I close my eyes and hear in my mind the smooth style and soul filled music of Duke Ellington.  My first encounter with Ellington’s “Sacred Concerts” songs came during Sunday worship, when Caroline, a parishione…
  • Closed in Observance of the Ascension of Our Lord
    The stores are closed today. On my way to a staff retreat in the verdant hills of southern Ohio, I won't be able to make my usual stop at the Amish store to purchase some amazing cheeses and fresh-baked bread. Today is the feast of Asce…
  • How Does Your Garden Grow?
    Some mornings we found a bucket of blackberries on our porch. On other days, parishioners would drop off a jug of maple syrup, tapped from their trees, or a few blue gill, freshly caught. In the first country parish we served, the people live…
  • Brother, Give Me A Word
    When Americans hear or see the word ‘stop’ we know what to do. If we are in our cars, we cease driving for a moment; if we are walking and about to cross the street, we hesitate. We have learned to pay attention and to make a response when we c…
  • When the Outside Doesn’t Match the Inside
    A 22-year-old woman visited our church for the first time last Sunday. We talked for a bit, and then I shared that in addition to my husband and me, the congregation has several other young couples.  Later, I realized: she must have thought I w…
  • Osama bin Laden: To rejoice or not?
    I don’t rejoice that Osama bin Laden is dead. To be certain, I am glad he can no longer mastermind terrorist attacks. I am thankful he will no longer be able to lead disenfranchised zealots to attack innocent people around the world. His …
  • Earth Easter
    On this Good Friday, I want to share a message from my friend Durrell Watkins, senior pastor at Sunshine Cathedral MCC, Fort Lauderdale.  "It's interesting that Earth Day falls on Good Friday this year.  With our greed (Judas/30 pi…
  • Tenebrae
    I’m looking forward to going to church tonight. For the second time, I’ll be joining my friend Barb at the Tenebrae service at Old North (United Church of Christ). Last year, I had no idea what a Tenebrae service was. It’s part of Holy Wee…
  • Who's Blooming?
    How did the rose ever open its heart and give to this world all its beauty? It felt the encouragement of light against its being – otherwise, we all remain too frightened. (Hafiz) This beautiful phrase anchors tonight’s meditation during Ve…
  • Don't Try This At Home
    It’s probably the most successful example of reverse psychology that’s out there - “Whatever you do, please don’t try this at home.” The effect is instantaneous. Mild-mannered souls become daredevils; otherwise sane folk start working out…
  • Is This Some Kind of Joke?
    An Asian-American, Native-American, African-American, two white women and I, all Episcopalian, walked into a bar. What is this, some kind of joke? No, just the end of our Lenten series at our church. We spent Lent exploring the connection …
  • Room 306: A Prophet Then and Now
    We turn the corner and walk into a photograph. All of my life, I've seen grainy photos of the Lorraine Motel, men hunched over, weeping, as Martin Luther King Jr. dies on the concrete. Today the motel in Memphis houses part of the Civil Rights …
  • And on the 7th day…
    I rested. I was exhausted. The conference had gone well, the responsibility for seeing that it did so left me drained: mentally, physically, and emotionally. And so, I gave myself permission to follow the ancient imperative to rest: " A…
  • Reclaiming Sacred Space is Hard.
    On the white sands of the Gulf, my kids made their first castles. My youngest sister pledged to share her life with her husband. We played wicked games of Yahtzee, nursed sun-red shoulders, and watched dolphins flit across the horizon. My daugh…
  • Prayer: Fail!
    I live with nuns. They gather for prayer at least three times a day. How is it that last week I missed every time, not able to show up even once to pray with them?                   Life is too busy. Too much work; too many commitments; too m…
  • Giving up Lent for Lent
    In my Resurgent Church colleague clergy group, two members shared the different ways their communities have been approaching the Lenten Season. Cynthia Espeseth, vicar of St. Hilda/St. Patrick’s, Mulkiteo, talked about the “wishful thinking hal…
  • RX: A Circumcision of the Heart
    The March 18 lectionary reading from the letter to the Hebrews invites us to remember that the Word of God is living and active rather than a flat script on a page. However, the image of a two-edged sword piercing and dividing does not bring an ini…
  • Getting Perspective
    This isn’t the blog post I had in mind. Last night, still wrestling with words and a deadline, I took a break to join the Sisters in singing the ancient prayers of Compline. Yet when I left chapel I was overwhelmed by something more ancient: the …
  • In God's Time
    When the social worker called my sister and her brother-in-law 2 ½ years ago, she needed an emergency foster care placement for two children. My sister and her husband had just entered into the foster-to-adopt program in the state of Kentucky.…
  • You are Dirt
    The familiar words “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” returned to us today, the only time in the liturgical year when we hear this startling and compelling pronouncement. It’s Ash Wednesday, when we’re reminded of ou…
  • Leave
    A New York Times article last summer began, “The findings have surfaced with ominous regularity over the last few years, and with little notice: members of the clergy now suffer from obesity, hypertension, and depression at rates higher than most A…
  • Lenten Blessings
    Lent is fast approaching. Often, I am amazed by how quickly time passes…less than two weeks left until Ash Wednesday. This year we decided to try something new. Episcopal Relief & Development has usually had a single author for the Lenten d…
  • Refresh and Renew
    On days when life gets overwhelming, I dream of leaving it all behind and going somewhere to nurture my soul and my dreams. A place where responsibility to family, work, and home can be forgotten; a place where I can explore and try on new identiti…
  • The Proper Distance?
    A few weeks after my husband proposed, we shared dinner with his great-aunt and uncle, who is a United Methodist minister. They offered us various pieces of advice about marriage and life in ministry. Then the great-aunt turned to me: “Make…
  • Mommy's a Good Multi-tasker
    We were running late to church. I applied the eye shadow at one stop light, mascara at the next. Now to find the lipstick. I rummaged through my purse with one hand. My 9-year-old started scolding. Mommy, stop. Keep both hands on the whe…
  • Emmanuel
    I want to write about losing inches from my waist and straightening all of my closets – or at least my sincere plans to do so sometime in 2011. But I’ve just returned from the funeral of a priest who committed suicide four days after Christ…
  • Crafting Resolutions
    Since I’m going to be in Texas for the foreseeable future (or at least until flights to New York begin again), I find myself with an abundance of time on my hands. Which is fine by me. My family’s home in the Texan hill country is an amazing pl…
  • Glorious In-Between Times
    Ah, we’ve reached the in-between times.  Wads of wrapping paper and torn boxes sit on the curb. There’s still plenty of cookies and fudge, but the baking is done. And for the family of a priest, the noon bells yesterday meant the end of the …
  • Making Room This Christmas
    Most of the time, there’s no room for a man-child like Brandon. He’s been asked to leave two churches. He’s 34 but with the mind of a 6-year-old. He can only see a glimmer of light out of the corner of one eye.  His mother died this…
  • Transitive Verbs ... and Christmas
    We greened the church yesterday. An afternoon of draping fresh-cut evergreen boughs from pillar to pillar, arch to arch, inspired me to draft “greened” into service as a transitive verb. It occurs to me that our celebration of Christm…
  • (Almost) Silent Retreat
    I just posted on Facebook that I was starting a two-day silent retreat, but within minutes called my brother. He answered the phone laughing, saying: “silent retreat, huh?” I was so busted! “We just saw your status and were talking with J…
  • Isaiah’s Spirit for Today’s Divided Nation
    All Advent long we have been hearing the prophetic words of the 8th century prophet Isaiah as he rails against the rulers of his day and holds out a vision of a positive future for the people of Israel. We need his voice in our own time as our eart…
  • The Art of Living Simply: Making More of Less
    “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” – Jesus “Simplify, simplify, simplify.” – Henry David Thoreau, Walden. Rules for a simpler lifestyle cannot be universal rule…
  • Advent Haiku
    First candle is lit Boughs on brass stand shimmering In the deep darkness That is the haiku I wrote in 10 minutes during the first class of our Advent series Advent Haiku- The Spirit in the Heart of the Moment. It is being taught by Ma…
  • Tis the season of: Overload?
    I’m a creature of habit. Regardless of when Advent begins, to me, December 1 is the ‘official’ start date of the season. Time seems to be in ample supply; balancing family, work, chores, and preparation for Christmas seems oh so do-able. …
  • Advent Calendars
    Last night I addressed the Advent calendars:One to each of our daughters, one to Bill’s aunt, and the last to Bill’s father.    Sending Advent calendars is my way of sharing Advent with people I love - who, due to distance, I do not see oft…
  • Open My Lips, O Lord
    I complain. I hate to admit it, but I do. Not all the time – I don’t think that people who know me would see it as a primary characteristic. But I do it more than I’d like to admit, and more than is healthy for my mind and spirit.
  • Appreciate Me Now
    My 6-year-old is moving out. He informed me that on his 18th birthday, he’s having cake, then packing. He’s going to move in with one of his buddies so they can run a web show. But I’ll miss you, I protest. Well, he says, yo…
  • Meager Harvest
    In the second installment of his Fieldwork contribution, farmer Paul Clever reflects on The Good Earth Farm’s meager harvest: “It is easy gathering in abundant fields swollen with pride. Your hands fill bags upon bags, knowing that not only wil…
  • A Thanksgiving Feast - The Religious Kind
    Episcopalians corner the market on Thanksgiving. Sure, everyone across the United States celebrates Thanksgiving in some way, from cranberries and turkey dinners to lazy afternoons watching football and parades to studious planning of Black F…
  • It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas . . .
    I remember the day I was flying home from the east coast on Halloween and as I was getting off the plane I heard on the muzak the first Christmas carol of the season. Living with a retailer (my wife runs the Cathedral Shop at St. Mark’s Cathed…
  • Busybodies or Workers?
    I’ve been thinking a lot about “work” lately. The value of work, types of work, and how people work. St. Paul got me thinking even more last weekend with his letter to the Thessalonians. Bluntly put: if you won’t work, you shouldn’t eat. …
  • Back to basics
    The first semester of our experiment ends tonight. My church is a typical county-seat congregation in the foothills of Appalachia. If only Christmas Eve were our typical attendance on Sunday mornings, we’d be a packed 150. Instead, most Sun…
  • The Mustard Seed
    A chance meeting at a jewelry party reminded me that I should have gone to church. I don’t sleep in on Sunday mornings very often. I’m a clergy spouse and a diocesan staff member and mother of two kids who love hanging out with their chur…
  • Top 10 Things Religious Leaders Say about Happiness
    Checking my email on this cool rainy morning, this headline stood out: “Top 10 Things Religious Leaders Say about Happiness” published on The Huffington Post. I clicked through not quite knowing what to expect. 
  • A Mosaic of Color
    Looking at the leaves that fell from the trees in yesterday's storm, I surprise myself when I recognize that my first thought is how beautiful the mosaic of color on my lawn is. Not that I ‘must’ get out and rake before the leaves smother t…
  • Saints Alive
    Faye laundered money. Literally. At the small, rural church, she collected the offering at the end of the service and hid it in her clothes hamper until she could make it to the bank. We discovered the occasions when she washed the purse wi…
  • Finding a Pulse Among the Dead
    Halloween is a huge happening at Trinity Church.The whole downtown neighborhood of lower Manhattan is invited to one end of the churchyard for theatricality and games for kids, a costumed cocktail hour for adults at the other end, with a packed-ch…
  • Holy Diversions
    I live alongside a monastic community. (Yes, there are nuns and monks in the Episcopal Church!) What a unique and amazing experience. I could never have planned for something like this…it just emerged in grace-filled ways over the last 18 months.…
  • Hollow me out
    When he didn’t win the pumpkin contest, I felt the tears sting. For most of Saturday, we worked on Cinderella’s coach, pulling the slime out of the pumpkin, carving windows, fashioning a door (that really opened!) and decorating the coach as…
  • Slogging through with joy
    Have you ever launched a website? Whew! This was my first…. All told, it’s taken over a year of effort. I worked on everything from the initial concept to launch, adding more people to the team as we went. Some days brought big decisions as…