I love Anne Lamott for many reasons, including the fact that she wrote one of my all-time favorite religious comments (“I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.”) So it’s not surprising that I’m recommending her newest book, Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers. While slim in length, it packs a lot of wisdom into its pages. The book is... Read more
Here is the final post in a series of reflections by guest blogger Bob Sessions: When God gives of God’s self, one of two things happens: either flesh is inspirited or spirit is enfleshed. It is really very clear. I am somewhat amazed that more have not recognized this simple pattern: God’s will is incarnation. And against all of our godly expectations, it appears that for God, matter really matters. God, who is Spirit, chose to materialize! We call it... Read more
Today’s post is the second in a series by guest blogger Bob Sessions: The first stage of the spiritual life is liberation from obsessive attachments. –Niketas Stethatos* The Kingdom of Heaven means dispassion of the soul. –Evagios of Pontus* Never let anger or irritability get a grip on you, for as scripture says: “The angry man becomes a fool,” (Prov. 11:25) whereas wisdom makes its abode in the heart of the gentle. –Theodoros the Ascetic* (*From the wonderful collection The Book... Read more
Today’s post is the first of a series by guest blogger Bob Sessions: In my final years of full-time teaching, I asked my community college students in a course on Working in America to create a list of characteristics that make for bad work. To my surprise—and then to my growing dismay the more I thought about it—the students put physical labor at the top of their list. If they had been students at an elite institution who had little... Read more
For a couple of years I’ve had a very enjoyable gig as a monthly columnist for the Episcopal News Service. Alas, the ENS is dropping the commentary section from its website, which means my column is no more. My final effort is below. It may be a bit too much of Episcopal-inside-baseball, so I hope you’ll bear with me if you’re not of the Anglican clan. (And if anyone out there is looking for a slightly-used-but-in-good-condition-columnist, please let me know... Read more
Today’s post is the text of a sermon I gave in my home church on one of my favorite topics: the Virgin Mary. The Gospel text for the day is Luke 1:39-55: In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and... Read more
Yesterday I was asked to be part of a discussion of “mixing faiths” on a 20-minute program on the Huffington Post. Click here to see the interview (the program actually begins at the 2:30 minute mark). The video quality of my portion is poor so if you’re interested, just listen to the sound. If Dante was writing his Inferno in the present day, I think one of his levels of hell would be having to watch a video of oneself over... Read more
Today’s post is by guest blogger Bob Sessions: Some of you have perhaps read Bruce Chatwin’s book about Australia called Songlines. In it he tells the story of how traditional Aborigines find their way across the Outback by identifying each landmark with a particular song, creating a musical map of the terrain. The original GPS! When I read the book, I was also intrigued to learn that Aborigines begin each day with lengthy discussions of their dreams. They believe that if you are unclear about... Read more
As Christmas approaches, I find myself thinking of my visit to Bethlehem last January. In particular, I remember meeting Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem who create handcrafted items made from locally grown olive trees. In a very tough part of the world, they are keeping alive a tradition that dates back to the earliest years of the Christianity. I wrote an article on these woodcarvers that’s in the current issue of the Catholic magazine St. Anthony Messenger. Even if you can’t... Read more
Here’s how much I love the new film Lincoln: after watching it, I told my sons that if they want to remain members of our family, they must see it. I’m not being totally unreasonable–I told them they could wait until Christmas break if they didn’t have time for it right away–but honestly, this is a non-negotiable for me. I know some of you have already seen it and those of you who haven’t might not want to read any... Read more
Holy Rover
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