by Bill Haley | Oct 29, 2020 | Contemplative Life
If your life is going great right now and all is well and you feel like you’re up for anything and can do most anything, stop reading and file this away for when that season ends and life feels quite a bit more overwhelming, or maybe read on and remember it for later...
by Bill Haley | Oct 22, 2020 | Contemplative Life, Creation
I sojourned to south-central Montana in mid-September. The break came at the end of an unexpectedly intense seven weeks, and before a seven-week stretch that I knew would be intense, and unexpectedly became much more so. I needed this time to rest, to immerse myself...
by Kelly Gould | Oct 19, 2020 | Contemplative Life
A little over three years ago, my life got pulled out from under my feet. I experienced one loss after another, starting with the sudden death of my father. One sweet friend asked a few months into this winter season of life how I wasn’t cowering in a corner from...
by Karla Petty | Oct 13, 2020 | Contemplative Life
Have you ever left a pile of papers or blankets or clothes in a corner of your home and then proceeded to forget all about it? It never goes anywhere, but we lose the ability (or the will) to see it properly. So too with God’s presence in our homes. All space...
by Bill Haley | Oct 1, 2020 | Contemplative Life, Justice and Mercy
[Author’s Note 10/5/20: I was saddened by the news of President Trump’s and the First Lady’s positive coronavirus results, and am praying for their health, safety, and a swift recovery. Let us all be in prayer for these things. This reflection has been...
by Coracle | Sep 28, 2020 | Contemplative Life
Since the fall of 2020, we have offered weekly opportunities to make “Space for God” at the start of our day. We gather online every Tuesday morning from 8:30-9:00 AM (ET) and every other Thursday at 8:30-9:00 AM (PT)Join Us at Next Tuesday’s...
by Bill Haley | Sep 16, 2020 | Contemplative Life
DOWNLOAD THIS REFLECTION >> And when Jesus got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we...
by Karla Petty | Sep 14, 2020 | Contemplative Life
I experienced the passage of time through a wide variety of tempos these last six months. March was Allegretto – “moderately fast”. April through June was Adagio – “slowly with great expression”. July through August was Andante – at a walking pace. And now we’re...
by Drew Masterson | Sep 3, 2020 | Contemplative Life, Justice and Mercy
On Friday, August 31st, Bill Haley and I had the opportunity to join around 120 pastors, ministry leaders, and laypeople to walk the 9 miles from Old Town Alexandria to Black Lives Matter Plaza out in front of the White House as part of Walk the Walk 2020. Bill has...
by Bill Haley | Sep 1, 2020 | Contemplative Life
Several years ago I had occasion to write a spiritual autobiography. I wouldn’t naturally have done that, but the assignment opened up a surprising opportunity to trace God’s fingerprints in my life and led to deep worship then and now. Something I had to do turned...
by Bill Haley | Aug 31, 2020 | Contemplative Life
This was a uniquely meaningful spiritual practice to undertake, and if you ever feel the desire to take a stab at your own spiritual autobiography, I collected some thoughts on different guidelines and postures that might help you get started. You can find...
by Mary Gardner | Aug 31, 2020 | Contemplative Life, Justice and Mercy
America, a religious nation, has had throughout our history a type of intellectual leader that has been termed the public theologian. Henry Ward Beecher, Abp. Fulton Sheen, the Niebuhrs, Billy Graham, and Fr. Richard Neuhaus are among the most prominent examples....
by Bill Haley | Aug 19, 2020 | Contemplative Life
Recently, in a sermon at The Falls Church Anglican, I finally got the chance to spend some time unpacking quite a few years of thoughts about praying what we’re actually feeling versus what we think we should be feeling. This is an intense time in our country and in...
by Bill Haley | Aug 11, 2020 | Contemplative Life, Spiritual Direction
Maybe it’s a little strong, but it’s probably just about right to say that my spiritual director has saved my life at least twice in the past 15 years. And God has met me, profoundly, a thousand more times through his ministry. Father James, a Trappist monk living...
by Coracle | Jul 21, 2020 | Contemplative Life
On July 16th, 2020, Rev. Karen Curry of Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church offered a workshop on “Poetry as Spiritual Formation.” She facilitates a discussion of her own original poem “Holy, Wholly Holey Ground,” shares how lectio divina can be...
by Coracle | Jul 15, 2020 | Contemplative Life
by Freddy Adams, 2018 Coracle Fellow Last month I set off for a 10-day cycling adventure. The first part I did with a friend through the Shenandoah Valley, and the other part I did solo down the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have had this approximate route on an unofficial...
by Bill Haley | Jun 23, 2020 | Contemplative Life
These are remarkably intense days in an unprecedented year for America. We’ve seen before some of the things we’re living in now, but never all at the same time like this. One writer draws out “a fascinating breakdown of 2020 and its historical parallels (so far):...
by Bill Haley | Jun 18, 2020 | Contemplative Life, Justice and Mercy
What is it to lament? You make a lament when the pain you feel can’t be carried by mere words. You make a lament when you’re so sad about something that you’d rather cry than speak. You make a lament when you’re grieved so deeply that you want to throw-up. You make a...
by Bill Haley | Jun 12, 2020 | Church Unity, Contemplative Life, Justice and Mercy, Peacemaking
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I’m writing to you in the wake of the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd and in the context of ongoing protests across the United States and the world calling for racial justice. I’m a Christian, and also...
by Drew Masterson | Jun 9, 2020 | Contemplative Life, Justice and Mercy, Liturgical Seasons
“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created mankind in...
