www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bs-ark-covenant/ "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil" ~ Isaiah 64: 1-3On this first week of Advent we ardently seek that God would come down from the heavens and offer up solutions to our problems. Oh that it were so!   The word "rend" means to tear.  It also means great emotional pain.  When I t ..read more

~ Christine Rosensteel ..read more

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastion#/media/File:Castillo_de_San_Marcos.jpg "Where two or more are gathered I too am among you." ~ Math 18:20 When I think of a bulwark I think of massive structures.  Giant fortifications and enormous earthen levees come to mind. Towers to keep out threats.  Something we build for protection.  A wall garrisoned with troops and heavy artillery.   Oddly enough levees fail and walls are breached, so what exactly is the bul ..read more

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarred_tree#/media/File:Aboriginal_carved_trees,_photographed_by_Henry_King_(ca.1889_and_1894).jpg For the last year I have watched in horror as humanity has inflicted one wound after another on the body of the earth and on certain segments of humanity.  The maps of Gaza are a hellscape. https://www.npr.org/2024/10/09/g-s1-27175/israel-hamas-war-gaza-mapI have reflected upon these wounds and prayed often about what can be done to heal them.  ..read more

IMAGE is AI generated from Meta AI using the phrase "rest in peace departed soul. find comfort"  I spent the last three weeks supporting my partner through the loss of her mother.  This post is about the human journey.  A journey all of us will take at some point in our lives. A few observations:For the dying they are led through a portal to a place we can only imagine. Reports from the portal are few and far between.  The forces of nature at some point will take ..read more

Pater Noster I’ve forgotten how I knew it was the night,but approaching footsteps followed by a knocktold us he’d come, who turning left, then right,would instruct our souls that could not fly, in flight. The Pater Noster that we’d memorized,he brought in a book to my brother’s bed,and sitting on the wide rail that ran beside,with each sentence he filled his head,until the words took meaning in their tide. And I was next who’d heard the broken prayer ..read more

When I first heard the news of who had won the election in 2016, I remember what felt like an audible gasp of horror at who and what we were facing for the next four years.  It turned out to be almost a decade of gasps.  One after another in what seemed like a fire hose of change.  As a nation we have come to accept less:   Less civility, less resiliency, and even less hope.  I know my cynicism reached new heights in the last 8 years. And yet I know that the words in Ecc ..read more

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parzival#/media/File:Parzival.Lauber.jpg The grail story is a peek into human development -- from the individual to the community of humankind.  What can Parzival teach us?  The real meat of this story is Parzival opening up to the frozen parts of his soul.  The thawing, painful as it is, is instructive because pain prods us awake. And once awake we can honor the sacred within not just ourselves but that which is sacred in others. &n ..read more

https://www.pexels.com/photo/standing-family-near-fireplace-1648387/ New York Yearly Meeting publishes the following advice: Remembering the tenderness of Jesus for children, we recommend that parents and those who have the important charge of educating youth exercise a loving and watchful care over them. Meetings are urged to help parents and children share religious experiences at home and in the meeting for worship and to give them an understanding of the principles and practices of Friends.   So, according to NYYM, the family is of paramount importance to Friends. The family is the m ..read more

https://www.pexels.com/photo/blue-and-red-dress-religious-man-illustration-767276/ The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke certainly portray Jesus in conflict with Jewish groups like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but John gives us a blanket condemnation of the Jewish people. He repeatedly refers to “the Jews” as Jesus’ opponents. In each of the other Gospels, this global, pejorative term is only used five or six times, but John mentions “the Jews” some seventy-one times. And according to John, “the Jews” are responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion and death.  The explanation for John’s ant ..read more