“Sometimes we have to get lost before we find the beauty that surrounds us. It can take going to the hard places, the desolate places, the painful places, for us to find joy. Sometimes we have to hit rock bottom before we can find the solid ground of our being.” I came across this quotation in my notes and I confess I have “lost” the source, even googling it didn’t get good results so please forgive me as I hone in on what I find to be its wisdom. As Lent begins this year I have been constantly reminded of a few things: mercy, mapless territory, and beauty. I have prayed about how these terms might be speaking to me right now and am trying this on: I am in a wilderness territory as I/we begin a new phase of our lives. The word retirement does not quite describe things as I find myself busier than ever and honoring my priesthood in new and life-giving ways. But mapless does describe it! I don’t have many entries in my calendar at least not familiar ones, though there is a certain ...

  “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil” And so our Lenten journey begins …. again as though for the first time… While I do not believe so much in an actual devil, I do believe that this Gospel lesson on this first Sunday of Lent opens the way to reflection upon the non duality of the wilderness, led by the spirit  and  met by temptation of sin. As such, the wilderness becomes both a story of Lenten preparation: praying, almsgiving and repentance, as well as a metaphor for those times and spaces in our lives when we are cast or venture into unknown territory, emotionally, physically and spiritually. I believe we are meant to journey deeply into the theology of wilderness during this time and at all times as Jesus taught us that the transfiguration into glory comes by way of the cross, not around it. As the couplets in the prayer of St Francis teach us one cannot have life abundantly without death, one cannot have faith without doub...

  As someone fascinated by questions of “identity” I have always thought that one of the most important questions we can ask is “who am I?”.   Upon reading James K.A. Smith’s How to Inhabit Time I realized that the inquiry which further informs the identity question, and is essential to its understanding, is “when am I?”. I will admit it is not a question I have asked myself! We are located in space and time, between creation of all things and some kind of ultimate revelation. Who we are is unique and evolving. When I am brings forth history and legacy and affects our orientation at any given moment. As Smith introduces his topic: “Knowing when we are can change everything. Knowing whether it’s dawn or dusk changes how you live the next moment.”   I am going to adopt an intentional contemplative time to ponder this question of when I am during Lent. I believe that it offers an opportunity to connect to the Spirit and to view myself in the context of that which is not only...

  What blessing do you long for? A reassurance? An affirmation? A realization of sacred wonder?   In an essay on Wonder by Australian writer Helen Garner, she offers this: “‘Go in peace, my daughter. I ope to hear nothing but good of you, as long as I live.’ That’s the blessing I’ve been longing for all my life…”   Her words inspired my blessing ruminations this morning. I believe that years ago I would have opted for a blessing of reassurance of being good enough. I thought love came in words. And now I find myself recalling the abundance of blessings in my life, most of them moments unaccompanied by speech. Most of them indescribable. The peaceful look which flickered in my mother’s eyes as she was dying.   That gaze was from and to eternity. Her life was a blessing.   The photograph of two grandchildren smiling broadly face to face on a white sand beach as sun glistened on the ocean and danced with them.   No words are adequate. I feel a bit disingenuous...