Prayers in Winter

[“The eyes of all wait upon You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing” (Ps 145:15-16). Driven from his Mannheim...

[“And behold, YHWH was passing by. . . .YHWH was not in the wind . . . earthquake . . . fire; and after the fire a small whispering voice. When Elijah heard it,...

[“The lovers of God have no religion but God alone” (Jalál al-Din Muḥammad Rúmi [1207-73]; cited by Dag Hammarskjöld [1905-61] in his Markings).] O Lover, I am again reminded that this glimmering gift of...

[“For it was (the Father’s) good pleasure for all the divine fullness to dwell in (the Christ)” (Col 1:19).] O Lover,  Across the sweep of two millennia one of the more neglected passages in...

O Lover,  From time to time I am drawn, ambush-like, into a zone of awareness of inundating beauty and bounty, one in which my modest vessel is filled and overflowing leaving me awash in...

O Lover, It was in my early twenties that I had my first substantive encounter with the thought of Paul Tillich (1886-1965). In the autumn of his passing I recall a class discussion exploring...

(8/1/23) O Lover, Yet again, how shall I hold in my awareness, as well as communicate, You—unnameable, undepictable, unimaginable? How can I assuage this itch, this draw, this propensity to ensnare You with language,...

(7/26/23) [“. . . the Spirit joins in to help our weaknesses; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Herself intercedes for us with groanings too deep...

(7/18/23) O Lover, For several years while living in Washington D.C. three decades ago I would begin each Wednesday with morning prayer and breakfast at the Discalced Carmelite friary. Befriended by a novice keen...

(7/12/23) [Rudolf Otto, The idea of the Holy (1917).] O Lover, In my previous post I sought to explore Dacher Keltner’s notion of “awe,” the experience of finding oneself in the presence of that...