Seeking Authentic Voice

This morning dawned cooler than previous days, the air was soft, the breeze, gentle. I made coffee and let Tokki out of his crate. He ran around and did his morning calisthenics. Keenly aware that this is day five, more than half way through this time of solitude, I got to work on the icon. Like yesterday, today was a big day. I ventured off from the directions in the self-guided book, in part because I am using a different image of Jesus than the book uses. And the icon I brought with me uses different colors and shading, which I tried to emulate. After working for a few hours I went to check on Tokki, who was back in his crated. So I locked the door and went for a walk.  Today I walked southeast, heading to the Huron Mountain Bakery, about 25 minutes away. I followed the path along the lake, it was a new route for me, past the iron ore storage bins which were used to collect ore from ships up until 1971. That’s it on the left side of this photo. It’s huge and unsightly, although ...

The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light. These ancient words have brought hope to countless people through the ages. These words speak to me tonight/today as I wonder where or how the light will shine, for once again, it seems, we live in an age of great darkness. Where, how, will it shine for the refugees fleeing Syria and through the haunting images like that of a little girl covered in the dust of bombed and fallen buildings as she tries to comfort her younger brother? Where, how, will it shine through families like the husband, carrying his small child and supporting the arm of his wife who is attached to an IV pole? Where, how, will the love of God come into this darkness, this despair, this fear?  In the bombed out buildings in Germany, the destruction of a Christmas market, will Jesus come again into this trail of death? How is God’s love shining forth for the families of those who died?  Around this country, Canada and France, churches are ...

Julie over at the  RevGalBlogPals  offers this Friday Five meme: Friends, the times may be dark, the days uncertain, but this we know – God is light and life and love and together we can overcome.   Today for your Friday Five contributions – share your favourite bible verses, photos, times of day and poetry – in any combination you choose in order to shed light on our darkened world. 1. Favorite Bible verse: I really can't choose just one. I could use the same verse Julie selected, from the prologue to the Gospel of John. That verse, and the idea of God expressing God's self as "word" into the world, word that took human flesh, has really formed my understanding of faith, who I am and who God is. But this morning I'm choosing this one: Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.  2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.  3 Mary too...

The other day I posed a question on three different Facebook pages using something called “Crowd-sourcing.” Essentially crowd-sourcing is a term that invites a large number of people, usually from an on-line community, into a discussion. In less than 24 hours I ended up with over 15 pages of notes from the responses I got .These responses have come from people I have never met, who worship in a wide array of Christian traditions, all offering their perspective on the question posed. In addition to having great discussions, Facebook is also a place where I find and maintain friendships from people I have known throughout my life. More than just a social networking site, Facebook has become a place of connection, and even, dare I say, formation. A few years ago I was pleased to reconnect with a high school friend after almost forty years of lost contact. We had much to catch up on. I still remember the conversation that ensued after she learned that I am an Episcopal priest. She wrote so...

A reflection on the readings for Epiphany 5A: Isaiah 58:1-12, Matthew 5:13-20 I woke up the other morning thinking of the word Iconic, so I decided to “Google” it, just to see what came up. Referring to iconic as something that has “cultural significance” I chuckled when I read on Wikipedia that The Christian Examiner nominated it to its list of overused words, finding over 18,000 "iconic" references in news stories alone. The third item on that Google page was a story published in the Seattle Times , titled, An Iconic Storm . The story described the experience of one woman stranded for eight hours in her car on Lake Shore Drive during the recent snow storm. I spent 23 hours of that storm in a house without electricity or heat as temperatures plunged to subzero. I was grateful my family made it home and no one I knew was stuck outside in their car. In the snow storm of 1979 I was one of those trying to get home on public transportation – a forty minute trip took me ove...