2025 Newsletters

I am a traveler on a sacred journey through this one shining day. ~ Richard Wagamese, Embers   As Advent arrives, I’ve been returning to the Christmas stories, to ponder again those ancient Biblical renditions of the birth and [...]

After serving for a while at the altar, communion ministers begin to notice people’s outstretched hands: Hands that are calloused and scarred from work. Hands that are gnarled and broken by illness. Hands that cook, plant, build, create, paint, [...]

Having been broken and remade / many times, I think we have to love our way through trouble / and keep softening into clarity. ~“Otherwise,” Mark Nepo. The Half-Life of Angels October leaves once green and thriving now layer the [...]

For many years nature has provided me with metaphors of inspiration and encouragement regarding the spiritual life. None more profoundly than a recent trip to the confluence where the Des Moines river enters the great Mississippi. I’ve long had [...]

(An excerpt from my latest book, The Years of Ripening, part of the essay on “Identity”) Ever since quite young I have searched my interior landscape for “the meaning of life.” The endless pieces and layers that consist of myself [...]

Two young deer cavorted in a heavy downpour, leaping and chasing one another through a field of high grasses. I looked out my patio door on a Sunday morning and felt such joy as I watched them at play. [...]

Have you ever seen a light eater? Sounds rather unusual, doesn’t it? Actually,  we are constantly seeing light eaters. We simply do not recognize them as the miracles that they are. The dictionary defines a miracle as “an event causing wonder and [...]

“You open wide your hand. They are well filled.” (Psalm 104: 28) The psalmist uses the metaphor of an open hand to tell of divine abundance for our spiritual well-being. This Hand is not only open but spacious, indicative of [...]

“Oh, to start out each day and greet each encounter with open arms—” (Dorothy Day: Spiritual Writings) On some days the option of greeting each encounter “with open arms” lacks luster in my daily aspirations. […]

This month as we enter the Lenten season, I am sharing an excerpt from my book, Dear Heart, Come Home. I wrote this book at a time of much spiritual growth. I hope the following excerpts will contain hope and [...]

I’m currently rereading Thomas Merton: When the Trees Say Nothing.  In my thirties, Merton’s writings provided a spiritual reservoir of insight and guidance. I learned from this monk of Gethsemane how nothing of our lives can be left out when it [...]

A few days ago I was mumbling to myself about not being eager to enter 2025. Then I read an editorial in the NCR by John Grosso whose words lent credence to my apprehension. Grosso describes what he perceives in regard [...]