by Karla Petty | Jul 15, 2019 | Contemplative Life
It was a dark room with about 16 other people in it. Unseasonably hot outside, the air conditioning was going full blast, and I shivered under a duct as I awaited Rose Cousins, Canadian singer/songwriter, at a small venue in suburbia. Her 2017 release Natural...
by Karla Petty | Jun 4, 2019 | Contemplative Life
In February of 2018, we held a retreat at Corhaven in which Virginia Watson, a then-94 year old woman sat with us for a day and shared some of her wisdom, gained through a lifetime of walking closely with Jesus. On May 24, 2019, she joined Jesus in Heaven. For the...
by Karla Petty | Mar 13, 2019 | Contemplative Life
Bedtime stories. Epic ballads. Campfire tales. They are the stories that never grow old, that fade in one form only to emerge again arrayed with different adjectives, a different detail or two, but recognizable to anyone. When we were very young, my older brother and...
by Karla Petty | Feb 12, 2019 | Pilgrimage
It is true that nowadays there are many faster ways to travel 100 kilometers or 62 miles than walking. And yet, the Camino de Santiago de Compostela is more popular than ever. While the major motion picture helped, there is a growing trend towards spiritual...
by Karla Petty | Nov 1, 2018 | Contemplative Life
“… to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Corinthians 1:2 Today, November 1, is the Feast of All Saints. Recognition, veneration, and prayer...
by Karla Petty | Oct 26, 2018 | Pilgrimage
Well friends, we’ve returned safely from our mission pilgrimage to Nepal. And what a trip it was! The Lord guided us, protected us, granted us special opportunities, magnificent vistas, and revealed himself in many unexpected places. Our second trip to Nepal...
by Karla Petty | Oct 14, 2018 | For the World, Pilgrimage
Hello friends! Our team is now fully assembled and diving into our pilgrimage here in Nepal. Most of us landed on Friday in Kathmandu and have enjoyed getting to know one another as well as familiarizing ourselves with the rhythms, sounds, and people around us. ...
by Karla Petty | Jun 12, 2018 | Coracle News, Pilgrimage
It’s a new era for Coracle. Our little boat is growing. For years, our staff has been made up of people who give part of their time to Coracle and part of their time to other professional roles. It was a great beginning and that structure served us very well. ...
by Karla Petty | May 4, 2018 | Contemplative Life, Creation
“A cold spring: the violet was flawed on the lawn. For two weeks or more the trees hesitated; the little leaves waited, carefully indicating their characteristics. Finally a grave green dust settled over your big and aimless hills… The infant oak-leaves swung through...
by Karla Petty | Apr 2, 2018 | Contemplative Life, For the World
One of the primary features of living Christianity as Christ has called us to live it is being a part of community. Whatever Myers-Briggs personality type you are, or where you fall on the introvert-extrovert spectrum, there is no getting around the fact that Christ...
by Karla Petty | Feb 2, 2018 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
With Lent beginning on Valentine’s day, and Easter falling on April 1 (April Fool’s day) it’s already a struggle to enter in to an important liturgical season, even before it has started. Even without competing with greeting card holidays, it’s...
by Karla Petty | Jan 16, 2018 | Contemplative Life
For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. ~ Proverbs 2:6 Time and again, the bible instructs us to seek wisdom. In Proverbs 8, wisdom is personified as a woman who calls out to the “children of man”. For many of us, seeking wisdom...
by Karla Petty | Nov 10, 2017 | Pilgrimage
“SOOOO… How was the CAMINO??” When I have been posed this question over the last few weeks since I’ve been back, I allow myself a long pause before responding. There is so much to say, so much I could relate about all that God did while walking 70 miles with 5 other...
by Karla Petty | Oct 13, 2017 | Contemplative Life
It’s doubtful that people ever actually want to meditate on suffering. But these mediations do come in the course of our lives, through direct or indirect circumstances. About two years ago, I wrote to you about the death of my cousin, Brian. In early Spring, I wrote...
by Karla Petty | Oct 6, 2017 | Contemplative Life
In the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, there is a running gag featuring monks in sombre garments, trudging through streets, chanting mirthlessly and monotonously in Latin, hitting themselves on the head with boards in between cadences of their chant. Despite...
by Karla Petty | Jul 7, 2017 | Coracle News
A long, slow, exhale as you ease into your chair with something you’ve been wanting to read. A sultry morning, a soundtrack of cicadas and sprinklers, sans school buses, when you can already feel the heat sizzle at 7am. A warm night outside with a grill going and...
by Karla Petty | May 16, 2017 | Pilgrimage
“…it remains the case that Christianity is not, at its heart, a territorial religion.” -N.T. Wright You are a pilgrim. Whether or not you hold a passport, whether or not you’ve ever left your hometown, you are. Since people began to write things down, they have...
by Karla Petty | Apr 13, 2017 | For the World, Peacemaking, Pilgrimage
Sometimes I struggle with the dual nature of Christ: fully God and fully man. For me, it’s easier to see him as divine than as human. It keeps Him at a comfortable distance. From March 28 – April 6 I traveled with a group of 25 other pilgrims in the Holy Land...
by Karla Petty | Mar 9, 2017 | Contemplative Life
“Originality consists in returning to the origin.” – Antoni Gaudí I hadn’t heard of Antoni Gaudí before spring of 2004 when I first visited Barcelona, but you can’t miss him once you’re there. Of the many works this master architect designed, his pièce de...
by Karla Petty | Jan 11, 2017 | Contemplative Life
Right on the heels of Epiphany, appropriately, I’d like to ask: Has something familiar ever suddenly, or maybe over time, become totally new to you? Have you ever asked yourself what shifted that allowed that newness to flood into something so familiar? For me, it was...
