Hurts and Slights

October 13, 2013 By Elizabeth Nordquist

It happens in the gathering of the faithful episodically, but regularly enough to have to take of note of one’s reactions and behavior: someone gets her nose out of joint, someone blows his top, there is fighting and biting–not philosophical argument, not theological misunderstanding, not just opposite points of view, but personal hurts and slights slung and accrued on a List of Blame. Accusations are made, epithets are thrown, or a great silence is hung on the conversation. All lofty... Read more

A Sunday Morning Prayer for Preachers

October 5, 2013 By Elizabeth Nordquist

After I preached last Sunday, I was freshly aware of how much I needed to trust the prayers of others as I climbed into the pulpit. I told my friend, the rector, that I would be praying for him, Sunday after Sunday. I was reminded of the many preachers I know by virtue of my professional years of service, and how even though I no longer preach regularly, I can still contribute to that avenue of being good news in... Read more

Preacher Woman

September 27, 2013 By Elizabeth Nordquist

This week I remember and celebrate the 30th anniversary of my ordination to the Ministry of Word And Sacrament, which is what we called it in those days. In some ways no one could have been more surprised than I was, because I was not formed in a tradition that believed in or supported the call of women to the pulpit and positions of leadership in the Church. Yet as a mother of young children, I began with others, men... Read more

Mapping Our Lives: Reviewing “The Geography of Memory”

September 20, 2013 By Elizabeth Nordquist

In my reading one of my beloved teachers-from-books, Joyce Rupp, I find these words in her Names for God: You never stop teaching us through the story of our lives and the heritage of our world (entry for Sept. 16). This is the underlying gift of Jeanne Murray Walker’s new book The Geography of Memory: A Pilgrimage Through Alzheimer’s. Although the author’s journey with her mother’s Alzheimer’s disease over a decade is the presenting feature of the book–in title, in... Read more

Atchison Blue: A Book Review

September 13, 2013 By Elizabeth Nordquist

The quest for a place of Spirit and a community of sacred conversation is a hot topic among those with whom I talk these days. Denominations seem to be coming apart at the seams; old practices no longer have the power that they once did, and the thread of the question is “Where do I go to find an organic connection with the Holy and with people of similar longing?” Atchison Blue by Judith Valente tells one woman’s story of ... Read more

How the Light Gets In

September 3, 2013 By Elizabeth Nordquist

My “summer” ended with my reading the long-awaited publication of the Louise Penny mystery, How the Light Gets In. With great skill the author claims the chorus from Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” as the metaphor for the way that humans keep working for good, despite our fragility and brokenness: Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in. In the book, the light of justice prevails in... Read more

Morning Glory Season

August 27, 2013 By Elizabeth Nordquist

The culture is in its annual Ramping Up Season frenzy: Fantasy Football, Blessing of the Backpacks, Back to School Sales, Homecoming Sunday, recipes for Fall (now that the season or berries, cherries and peaches is over). None of those seasons shape my life currently. Nor does the weather in Southern California; the textbook seasons seem to elude us here. It could just as well be winter in August on certain days as summer. It’s clear that seasons for me cannot... Read more

Spiritual Companion: A Creature Wide and Small

August 12, 2013 By Elizabeth Nordquist

Here in mid-August I have been left behind by my nearby and family and friends who are off adventuring, and have been entrusted with the care of Linus, my 11 year old grand-dog. I learned to love dogs in the early years of my marriage, but those dogs were all beautifully long, leggy and adventurous, bred for herding and cavorting and chasing sticks. Linus is none of those things. Compact, deliberate, loyal, sedentary, he is my companion of body and... Read more

Pray As you Can, Not As You Can’t

August 4, 2013 By Elizabeth Nordquist

I am some one for whom prayer is an organic practice. I continue to teach people how to pray. Yet in these past weeks, I have been stopped short by my body, and my mind and spirit have come tumbling after. I am participating with health care givers in my healing of back and leg pain with medication, physical therapy, and attempts to be patient. Between my physical discomfort and my medicinal medical haze, I can’t sustain and practice prayer... Read more

Acquainted with Sorrow

July 14, 2013 By Elizabeth Nordquist

Since my summer practice is to be present, I cannot avoid being present to the pain and sorrow that come into my awareness. This week, my heart was broken first for the families of the two teenage girls from China, having sent their daughters off for an enriching and spiritually deepening experience in the United States, only to hear that they had been killed in a horrifying airplane crash at San Francisco International Airport. Here in Southern California a whole... Read more