Seeking Authentic Voice

This is my 670th post on this blog, which I started on Sept. 11 2006. Just thought you'd like to know that statistic. I have had an unusually busy week beginning with the Gathering of Leaders conference that I attended in Scottsdale. It was a great conference and I look forward to writing up my notes and a reflection on it. But first things first. Today I have to Officiate at a wedding in Tucson for a delightful young couple. It will be a fairly fancy affair for this area. I look forward to that. Then tomorrow morning bright and early I hop in the car with Ollie, the giant puppy, to drive to Chicago where I will return him to his mom, my daughter. So, travelling prayers please, that I can manage this drive to and from Chicago (3600 miles round trip) safely and without incident. Twitter me while I'm on the road or call if you know my number. I may need help staying awake...While in Chicago I'll see a few friends and family but I can't do much in just three days.... And I...

KathrynZJ offers this Friday Five Meme over at RevGals. 1) Your lifesaving food/beverage. Oh....most mornings it is a goooood cup of coffee. But sometimes it is that afternoon pick me up cup of tea. Other times it might be a glass of red wine. But as a general rule I drink a lot of lifegiving water, iced or not, depending on the weather. 2) Your lifesaving article of clothing. Some call it a dog-collar. I heard one person call it a bandit-collar. For me though, the clerical collar I wear has been a lifegiving symbol of my ministry. I don't need to wear "the collar" to feel like or priest or remember that I am one. But I wear it with a deep sense of gratitude for that which God has done in my life. The collar is a clear symbol of the ministry I do and love. I love what I have been called to do even though it can be really hard life draining work. When I wear the collar people know who I am and what I am there for, whether it is visiting someone in the hospital or officia...

This morning I head off for a three day conference on leadership. Here's a snippet of the email I received preparing us, "Our topic is Christian Formation in the Missionary Church. In preparation, Christopher Beeley, who will be speaking with us about insights from the Early Fathers and others, suggested that we might want to read the attached excerpt from St. Augustine’s De doctrina Christania and to reconnect with the following passages from Scripture..." It's being held at the Franciscan Renewal Center, the same place we gathered last spring for the BE 2.0. Thursday night I will conduct a class at the "Back in the saddle" church on creating a facebook account and using facebook. We going to create a FB page for the church and help parishioners create a page so they can particapate. It's part of their marketing and growing the church strategy. We may also create a blog for posting Sunday sermons and other info, in addition to their website. Friday I h...

A reflection on the readings for Proper 25B: Job 42:1-6, 10-17 and Mark 10:46-52 My family and I live in Green Valley, having moved there from Chicago about 2 years ago. It’s a big change for us, living in a small town in the middle of the desert instead of the hustle and bustle of a major Midwest city. There are some things we really like about where we live. For example, we live on the foothills of the Santa Rita mountains, just a few miles from Madera Canyon. The view out our backyard is spectacular and the birds at our feeders are plentiful and beautiful. But there are many things we miss about Chicago. The restaurants, or more specifically a good Italian beef, is one thing. We also miss the variety of options on cable television. Where we are we do have cable, but it’s limited. The same movie will play over and over, days on end. Old movies. For example, about every three months one of the movie channels will play Clear and Present Danger, the movie version of the Tom Clancey nove...

I had to have a mammogram this morning, early. And a bone density scan. At least it is breast cancer awareness month so I got gifts - a pink water bottle! Then, I ran to the dry cleaners to drop of a jacket, dropped off a table at the recycled furniture and clothes place, and got my hair cut, (trust me it needed it).... That was followed by an acupuncture treatment. Then I came home and colored, yes colored, my own hair...economic times being what they are....It turned out ok!....(all those years of working for my sister-in-laws hair salon gave me some idea of how to do this, even though I prefer to pay a professional). Then I had to drive an hour each way to get my son from school. Because I needed the car for all of my appointments and errands. Anyway.... That's why I didn't play the Friday Five....sigh.

Sitting over words very late I have heard a kind of whispered sighing not far like a night wind in pines or like the sea in the dark the echo of everything that has ever been spoken still spinning its one syllable between the earth and silence W.S. Merwin in "A Book of Luminous Things, An International Anthology of Poetry" Edited by Czeslaw Milosz 1996, Harvest Book

While on my silent retreat I picked up the "Inaugural Issue" of the Weavings. I love this journal, have for years. I love the poetry, the reflections, especially the writings of Wendy Wright. And, given where my life is right now, I figured it was no small coincidence that the lead article was titled, "The Absence of God" written by E. Glenn Hinson. The article draws on Mother Theresa's memoir, her startling assertion that "The place of God in my soul is blank.....There is no God in me...I just hear my own heart cry out - 'My God' and nothing comes." He offers this assessment: most contemplatives have discovered "The deeper you plunge into the depths of God, the more likely you are to experience how utterly inadequate is our human capacity for meeting and knowing God." He then goes on to speak about the apophatic and kataphatic streams of mysticism - that there is no way to really know God or the way to know God is affectively as lov...