Our prayers trace the cracks in the stony soil of our hearts. Gradually the cracks become big enough for the soft rain of grace to sink in and give life to the seeds hidden in darkness. Please join me for my next Interactive Online Workshop! Read more
I want life to teach me to become better acquainted with death. During the more strict days of quarantine, I would go for a walk every day in the Mountain View Cemetery. I watched the cherry blossoms bloom and then fade. I watched the tulips, irises and lilies blossom and then fade. But this undeniable beauty was foregrounded by deep anxiety and fear about the ravages of COVID-19. There are some headstones in the Mountain View Cemetery with a name... Read more
Contemplative spirituality is tidal. There are seasons where the life giving waters of the spirit are abundant and lap against the shores of our souls. There are also seasons where the shore retreats, and there seems to be only muck as far as the eye can see. When the seafloor of our lives is exposed, we feel vulnerable. We can see the trash that has accumulated in our hearts and minds. It is difficult to get our ship back to... Read more
The parks are starting to open up again. I am grateful to have been able to get out of the city this weekend. As a contemplative I don’t mind being alone. I like my work and living space. I like my neighborhood. But to be outside in the fresh air and to smell the sea reminded me what an immense privilege it is to be alive, and to live where I live. I don’t want to take anything for granted.... Read more
[Sermon delivered at St. Mary’s Kerrisdale on May 11, 2020] Readings Ps 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2:2-10; Jn 14:1-14 Preface As some of you may know, in the summer of 2018, I was privileged to be able to walk the French Way of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Spain. It is often just called The Camino, or Way. When you pass fellow pilgrims it is customary to greet each other with an enthusiastic ‘Buen Camino!’ The entire trail is... Read more
REVIEW OF: Brad Lyons and Bruce Barkhauer America’s Holy Ground: 61 Faithful Reflections on our National Parks (Saint Louis: Chalice Press, 2019). Written by journalist Brad Lyons and Disciples of Christ Minister Bruce Barkhauer, America’s Holy Ground is something of a Holyscapes guide book. The authors are rooted in the Christian tradition, and present readers with 61 meditations on US National Parks through. Founded in 1916, the National Park Service began as a way of preserving some of the US’s... Read more
[Sermon delivered on March 22, 2020] Readings 1 Sam 16:1-13; Ps 23; Eph 5:8-14; Jn 9:1-41 Dear friends in Christ, welcome to spring! But what an unprecedented and devastating way to start the season of resurrection. I hope you are breathing deeply, and loving even more deeply. Please take care of yourselves and let me know if there is anything I can do. Yesterday during the Quiet Day, I talked about the Desert as a symbol of the spiritual... Read more
[SPOILERS] I recently saw filmmaker Taika Watiti’s Jojo Rabbit. The premise is based on Christine Leunens’s book Caging Skies. The film has received some negative reviews for its lighthearted nature; but the film was picked by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute as one of the ten best films of the year in 2019. It has also received six Oscar nominations. The controversy surrounding the film arises from its parody of Adolf Hitler as the imaginary... Read more
Homily delivered on Jan. 26, 2020 at St. Mary’s Anglican Church Readings Holy Eucharist: Propers 350; Is 9:1-4; Ps 27:1, 5-13; 1 Cor 1:10-18; Mt 4:12-23; Preface of the Lord’s Day When I was a child, I would beg God to give me a sign! I remember lying in bed late one night and asking ‘God if you are there, turn on the lights!’ In today’s readings we hear Isaiah predicting that very thing.When God comes to dwell with... Read more
Delivered Dec. 15, 2019, Gaudete Sunday, Third Sunday of Advent at Saint Mary’s Anglican Church in Vancouver, BC. Readings: Isaiah 35:1-10; Ps 146:4-9; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11 I spent this week hunkered at my desk marking undergraduate papers. In a very real way, as a professor, I am assessing their value as competent students. Some students are gifted writers, others are…beloved children of God. I try to be impartial and award grades on merit. But I can’t be giving out... Read more
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