It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature’s gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.
03593 – Outdoors Here Forever?
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03087 – Prayer of an Anonymous Abbess
Lord, thou knowest better than myself that I am growing older and will soon be old. Keep me from becoming too talkative, and especially from the unfortunate habit of thinking that I must say something on every subject and at every opportunity. Release me from the idea...
02314 – Prayer
Let the rain come and wash awaythe ancient grudges, the bitter hatredsheld, and nurtured over generations.Let the rain wash away the memoryof the hurt, the neglect.Then let the sun come out andfill the sky with rainbows.Let the warmth of the sun heal uswherever we are...
02210 – Using Gender-Inclusive Language
As the father of two girls (now also grandfather of three), I have cringed listening to some preachers and teachers in the church make perfectly good points while using solely male pronouns during their exposition... There are, indeed, “hidden figures” in our...
01857 – Doubt Can Lead to Faith
Before doubt, I thought that faith was a matter of correct beliefs. My religious teachers taught me so: that if I didn’t hold the right beliefs, or at least say that I held them, I would be excommunicated from my community, and perhaps, after death, from God’s...
01661 – Experience: Hardest Kind of Teacher
Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. It gives you the test first and the lesson afterward.
01607 – Go or Stop
As the characters in the story maintain a safe distance from Jesus, speculating among themselves about this new powerful teacher, readers of Mark are invited to follow Jesus into a whole new world, says New Testament scholar Brian Blount, into "Mark's world of Jesus...
01176 – Is Jesus Really My Lord?
If one is honest about what Jesus says about loving others (including one's enemies) and about sharing one's possessions with others, one has to admit that Jesus wasn't very practical at all. Indeed, he was over-the-top radical. He was far more radical than I like or...
01012 – Discipline: The Key to Problem-Solving
Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult—once we truly understand and accept it—then life is no longer difficult. Because...
00956 – Suffering Alone Does Not Teach
I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness, and the willingness to remain vulnerable.