Category Archives: spirituality

Soon, time to journey

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Yesterday, someone reminded me that I haven’t posted here for a while. I know.

I said that I have no opinions at the moment. Which isn’t quite true, of course. If there’s anything many of us have too much of, it’s opinions — and many opportunities to express them, from a simple “like” to a 140-character tweet to a post at a blog. Sometimes there are a lot of us talking.

But the real reason for the relative silence is that I’ve been pressed with other kinds of writing — a round of revision on my current novel project and preparing a talk I’m giving to a breakfast meeting tomorrow morning.

I’m hoping to pick up the pace at my blog, however, during the next six weeks…. Continue reading →

Looking for a pit, finding a fire

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Yesterday — it being the last day of the year and all — H. presented me with a neat idea. How about we go to Birds Hill Park, he said, and make a fire? Birds Hill is a provincial park about 24 kilometers from Winnipeg, and a favorite destination to camp, hike, bike, swim, and picnic. This appealed to me immediately, it being the last day of the year and all, and the weather relatively mild at a few degrees below zero Celsius. So, come supper time, we were off, with wood and matches, flashlights, chairs, picnic basket with smokies, buns, condiments, drinks, and dessert. Continue reading →

Blessed are the merciful

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I belong to a Mennonite-Catholic dialogue group which meets several times a year. Our assignment for this week’s meeting was a personal reflection on the Beatitudes, broadly, and then more specifically, in choosing one beatitude we were particularly “attracted” to at this point — in not more than seven minutes each! The contributions were varied, and all interesting. This was mine:

I memorized many parts of the Sermon on the Mount as a child, to get a reduction on Bible camp fees. So it seems the Beatitudes have been with me forever, like old markers, like a fence around my life. They’ve been markers for my (Mennonite) understanding of discipleship.

“Selig sind die Barmherzigen” (Blessed are the merciful), inscription over doorway in Berlin

In this reflection, however, I was struck by something else. The opening beatitudes [blessed are the poor, mourning, meek, hungry], at least, seem an expression of holes in the soul. I see need, grief, poverty of whatever kind, hunger. Yes, there’s a happiness expressed, but next to gaping wounds. Continue reading →