My arms wrapped around your waist, your arms holding me. My head nestled against one of your broad shoulders. Something I didn’t pray for in a husband, but that I’m glad I got. The sheet is half yanked down our reclined bodies because one of us, usually you but sometimes me, gets hot when we […]
spiritual formation sacred rhythms liturgy
Rhythms that Return Us To Ourselves
T.S. Eliot writes, “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” I am forty-one and a half. And lately, I’ve been sensing that God is calling me, like the prodigal, to return to my senses—to […]
Forever Changed by the Flood
For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the […]
Smoking Outside the Church
I graduated from high school in 2016 and quickly fell into a period of apathy and stagnation. That period extended to August of 2018 when I found a pre-employment class in my city. I went to it for three weeks, and after it finished, I felt a little lost as to what to do. I […]
Singing the Kyrie
I was as surprised as anyone to love it. I grew up in churches without a formal liturgy, that is, the kind handed down in books and tradition and rituals smoothed by time and use. Going to formal churches with friends or family, the kinds of churches with chants and incense and bowing, made me […]
Common Prayer and Common Life
Give them wisdom and devotion in the ordering of their common life, that each may be to the other a strength in need, a counselor in perplexity, a comfort in sorrow, and a companion in joy. We are a liturgical family. I am drawn to the liturgical church for many of the same reasons I […]
The Welcome of What Is
There are many rhythms that carry me through daily life and into the presence of God. As a Midwesterner, the four seasons have become a perpetual joy and sometimes annoyance, but a cadence upon which my body, mind, and soul have come to rely. As an Anglican, the liturgy, Eucharist, and church calendar have carried […]
The Practice of Blessing
When we were moving last time, I did my best to fit in final coffee dates and chats with all the people who had been meaningful to me. One hot afternoon I found myself in the home of a Catholic friend with whom I’d had many deep conversations about theology and practice. We talked for […]
White Spaces
The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause. ~ Mark Twain The other day I sat with two girlfriends over a cup of coffee. We laughed, talked about the books we’re reading, and the questions we’re asking about life. It was a decadent morning where […]
Looking for the Invisible Formation of Life
There has been a pattern to my life lately, a rhythm of books and papers. The rhythm has been so steady that it has started to feel like a weekly liturgy. The lectionary readings have not been spiritual per se, but they have been holy nonetheless. The Old Testament reading for the day comes from […]
Stirrings
This is an excerpt from Suanne Camfield’s new book, The Sound of a Million Dreams: Awakening to Who You Are Becoming. The stomach flu was a bad one. Eric was sick. Clay was sick. Sadie had just gotten done being sick. It was the eighth time we’d had the stomach flu in four years, one of […]
A Reflection on Failing Lent
Last year was the first time in my over half-century life I’ve observed Lent. I didn’t grow up in a church that acknowledged it, and only in the last few years have I begun to experiment with living by the liturgical calendar. Rather than think about giving something up, I chose to frame it as […]