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The wideness of mercy
The season after Epiphany has been described as the season when “we reflect on the nature of the Messiah who has come, and we face the risky problem of how we are to act on the basis of our reflection” (Robert McAfee Brown in Social Themes of the Christian Year: A Commentary on the Lectionary,… Continue reading
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Where’s everybody going?
“I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills.” So Karen Blixen begins Out of Africa, the account of her life in Kenya. At the beginning of the movie based on the book, Meryl Streep repeats that line wistfully, as if invoking a memory. “I had a farm in Africa .… Continue reading
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This call is for you
When our celebration of Christmas ends, the work of Christmas begins. According to theologian and poet Howard Thurman, that work is: “To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, To release the prisoner, To rebuild the nations, To bring peace among brothers [and sisters], To make music in the heart.” The… Continue reading
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At the gate of the year
Since I was a child, hardly a new year has begun when I don’t think of my grandfather Howard Fullerton and a little poem we discovered after his death. Let me tell you the story of that poem. In the dark, uncertain days of late 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, England’s… Continue reading
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The Innkeeper: Ruminations for Christmas Eve
Sometimes the tiniest act of kindness can save a life. It might even transform the world. I’m thinking of some of the players in the first Christmas story. They’re given no credit in the cast of characters, but you know they were there. Take the innkeeper, for example. He’s not even mentioned in the scene… Continue reading
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On growth and change
Growth and change are equal partners in any pilgrimage, any journey toward wholeness – you can’t talk about one without also talking about the other. Not all change involves growth, of course; some involves regression, degradation, decomposition. People spiral down as well as up. But all growth involves change. Much of what makes change an… Continue reading
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Sweeping clean
It’s time for another purge, I wrote in July, referring to the prospect of ridding myself of writings that have accumulated since my last major purge several years ago, “to clear myself of how I once saw things, hoping to see the brand-new landscape of my existence.” Two months later, I’ve done it: blog entries,… Continue reading
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When the world falls apart
“When the world falls apart, what can the good hope to do” (Ps. 11:3 ICEL)? The psalmist’s question has been with us for maybe 3,000 years or longer, and today it’s as relevant and penetrating as ever. I’m not sure the world is falling apart – we’ve survived hard times before – but the news… Continue reading
authentic relationship, commitment, community, covid-19, David Brooks, divisiveness, Emerson, environment, faith, family, finding God, good news, grief, hope, insurrection, let your life speak, Parker Palmer, philosophy, Rabbi Zusya, seeking God, terrorism, The Second Mountain, Thomas Merton, vocation
The Sauntering Pilgrim 