We founded Circle of Hope in a ripe moment of history and the outcome has been beautiful. A few weeks into the process, we sat in a small circle discussing what our name would be. We ended up with several versions of a name with “hope” in it. But some people did not like any … Continue reading Mystical hope in a deteriorating world
Warning. If you are afraid of a “spoiler alert” related to a Batman movie this post might disturb you. But you’ll probably be OK. We don’t go to Batman movies to be surprised. We go to see someone re-imagine a very familiar story. Besides, the trailer gives away some of the best parts! To be … Continue reading The Batman: Hope for the victims of trauma
Last Saturday, I kept running into hope and it made me cry. As I rolled in to the Good Business Oversight Team summit, Pie Jesus came on my player right when I was thinking about the epidemic of heroin-induced deaths in our city and country. My grief over the loss of hope among the victims (and now … Continue reading Hope: The quality of aliveness right under our noses
I’m still savoring the memory of Cynthia Bourgeault’s book, Mystical Hope, laying in my lap, a tear trickling down my cheek and a smile broadening across my face in deep relief and joy. I had just reached the part in which she quoted a little piece of a Thomas Merton cassette (!) speaking to his … Continue reading There is hope: But you’ll need to die to enjoy it
The notion that God is absent is the fundamental illusion of the human condition. — Thomas Keating If Cynthia Bourgeault is right (and my own experience says she is), then the way beyond egoic thinking is the way of meditation. She says, “Meditation, more than any other spiritual practice, nurtures the latent capacities within us … Continue reading Anxious and tired: Prayer that turns us toward hope
Lynn Bauman’s paraphrase of Psalm 103:11 warms my heart: As the heavens reach beyond earth and time, we swim in mercy as in an endless sea. I need to hang on to that deeply hopeful picture. May that deep, biblical truth ascend as old Christian memes lose their strength. I am longing for the descent … Continue reading Swimming in the Mercy: The experience of hope
One of my irreligious and lovely FB friends gave a good invocation for the post-election liturgy. “There is no weighted blanket heavy enough to get me through this week, my GOD.” Funny, true — and what a good lament! Nothing seems able to solve America right now. The situation moves me to fire up my … Continue reading The inside-out way of love will lead to what is next
For 300 years, from the 1200’s to 1500’s the Rhine River Valley in Europe experienced an astonishing revival of Christian experience among regular people. One of the great expressions of it was the founding of many communities of “beguines” and their male counterparts “beghards.” These communities were part of a huge spiritual movement that stressed … Continue reading Re-begin the Beguines: True alternativity we’ve just barely tried
Singing is one of the most integrative activities we can do. It uses heart, soul, mind and strength to express our desire and open us to receive good things from God and others. When we sing in a group (and we will again, some day) it is often a unitive experience. So let’s sing with … Continue reading “How I Got Over:” Mahalia Jackson helps us do 2022
Tarot has been having a “moment” for a few years. I wandered into the moment when I watched an episode of something in which an old, dying woman read the cards for her new, young friend. It was a movie moment reflecting the present tarot moment — watching an old story using the old deck-full … Continue reading Tarot: Where is your reading leading?