Pentecost and my new post at a Deeper Church

May 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment
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I have a new post up at a Deeper Church about Pentecost, the daily physical stuff of life, and the question my son's Sunday School asks him every week: "Are you ready to worship God?"   “’I will not take you out of the world.’ There are enormous implications here that I can so easily neglect. Christ was a carpenter for most of his life, and those years were not wasted ones…. Christianity does not isolate the sacred from the secular. Not only are material things good in themselves, … [Read more...]

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One Good Phrase: Tanya Marlow (Do It Anyway)

April 17, 2013 By 30 Comments
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Tanya Marlow would probably not admit it, but she is brave. That's why I'm drawn to her writing and her view of the world. Tanya has a disease that has forced her to live almost entirely housebound, but I find her vision of life refreshingly big and beautiful. Though she is a lovely English lady across a mass of continent and ocean from me, I'm thankful to be her friend through this magical internet world. So happy she's here today. I'd been playing the piano for five years when I decided I … [Read more...]

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Holy Week

March 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment
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Friends, I like for us to spend our Holy Week at Mama Monk quietly, contemplatively. So I'll be mostly silent around here, though I will be posting every day from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday. My posts will be reflective in nature: art, poems, and quotes to go with each day of the week and to (hopefully) help lead you in worship and prayer. If you've been around for Holy Week in the past, you'll probably recognize what I post, but I hope it falls on fresh ears. Thankful to walk with … [Read more...]

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My Chalkboard: Sarum Primer, 1527

March 8, 2013 By 1 Comment
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Sarum Primer, 1527 (I discovered this via Phyllis Tickle in my daily prayer book, The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime.) … [Read more...]

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The Pursuit of Enough: Remembering the Thankful

March 4, 2013 By 16 Comments

  I can flip the switch from Resting Weekend Micha to Anxious Snap-Mouth Micha in about, ummm, three minutes of staring at my computer, remembering all that exists in there that I still have to do. The lovely thing about my Lenten practice of Sabbath beginning at sundown on Saturday night and ending sundown on Sunday night, is that I still have time on Sunday to sort out my week on the computer. I have time to catch up on some blogs, to read a couple of articles. Chris and I go through our … [Read more...]

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The Pursuit of Enough: Keeping Sabbath

February 25, 2013 By 18 Comments

“We rest in order to honor God and his creation, which suggests that not to rest dishonors both.” -Judith Shulevitz, The Sabbath World   The thing about Sabbath is that there are still always dishes to do and the kids are still themselves. There are diapers to change and stories to read. And that’s my job all week long, right? Can there really be a day when I rest from the demands of raising children? There is paper all over the counter: bills unpaid and that reminder about the … [Read more...]

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My Chalkboard: Jean-Pierre DeCaussade

February 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment
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Love this: "Mystify us, arouse us and confuse us." If only we prayed that way more often? From The Sacrament of the Present Moment, written in the 18th century. … [Read more...]

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The Ashes and the Being Made Whole

February 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment
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  Last year in Austin, Chris was away for work and I couldn’t get myself together to get the boys to the service and forfeit our baby’s bedtime, knowing I’d spend the whole service nursing and hushing. That afternoon, after August woke from nap time, I took leaves burned them in a pan in the backyard. And I marked myself. I said, “Micha, you are dust and to dust you shall return.” It felt like most of my moments of personal prayer: distracted, not quite complete, the … [Read more...]

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Beautiful: A reflection for the day after Ash Wednesday

February 14, 2013 By 2 Comments
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I wrote this post two years ago, when Brooksie was known only as T-Rexy. (These days he's still "T" most of the time at home.) It's a reflection that still feels relevant these two years later.   Wednesday night, as I entered the church nursery where August had been playing while I was in the Ash Wednesday service, my son looked up at me, first in joy (I love how the simplicity of my presence brings him happiness) and then in confusion. The ashes on my head were anything but subtle. … [Read more...]

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Thankful Tuesday (before Ash Wednesday)

February 12, 2013 By 3 Comments

  This, as I head into this “Sabbath Lent”: “Stop for one whole day every week, and you will remember what it means to be created in the image of God, who rested on the seventh day not from weariness but from complete freedom. The clear promise is that those who rest like God find themselves free like God, no longer slaves to the thousand compulsions that send others rushing toward their graves.” -Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church   Ash Wednesday is … [Read more...]

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