Journal

Category: Contemplative Life

Spiritual Formation During a Pandemic

Spiritual Formation During a Pandemic

Are you looking for ways to grow in your relationship with God during this pandemic season (or any season for that matter)?  You are in the right place!  We have collected some of Coracle’s resources and offerings that deal with that question for you to easily...
Responding to Life’s Blows

Responding to Life’s Blows

Originally written circa 1988 Job 3:24-26 For my sighing comes as bread, and my groanings are poured out like water. For the thing I fear comes upon me, And what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes. “The thing I fear...
Psalm 130: God Uses and Redeems All

Psalm 130: God Uses and Redeems All

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! 2     O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive     to the voice of my pleas for mercy! These verses could have been penned by Jonah from the belly of the whale, who took Jonah literally to great depths!  But who has not...
Resisting Our Limits

Resisting Our Limits

It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life.  Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom.  Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows.  For...
Self-Care for Leaders During COVID-19

Self-Care for Leaders During COVID-19

On April 16th, 2020, I had the opportunity to share 4 pillars of self-care for Christian leaders in a crisis with members of the Accord Network, an organization dedicated to unifying God’s people to serve the world’s poor with excellence. Please feel free...
“Gifts” – A Poem by Ann Bodling

“Gifts” – A Poem by Ann Bodling

by Ann Bodling, Coracle Spiritual Director In this strange, disorienting, sometimes-hopeful sometimes-fearful, sometimes-sad time, I can forget. The gifts are here, as always. The Presence of God is here, as always. To recognize them I need to notice, as always. And...
Why We Return to Beloved Stories

Why We Return to Beloved Stories

In this “Simple Soundings” reflection, Drew Masterson shares why we return to familiar stories even when we already know what will happen.  He ends with a poem from Richard Wilbur, “The Reader.”Explore Other “Simple Soundings”...
A Visible Presence

A Visible Presence

How might we, as Christians, be a visible presence to the communities where we live?  Aside from checking on our neighbors, family, and friends, what might we do to share the love of Jesus with others?  As followers of Jesus, we are people of HOPE!  We have good news...
Redeeming “Shelter in Place”

Redeeming “Shelter in Place”

In this, our first “Simple Soundings” devotional of the 2020 pandemic, Bill Haley offers a stirring call to embrace God’s invitation to us in the midst of the difficulties of adjusting to pandemic life, specifically, living “sheltered in...
Pilgrimage in Place

Pilgrimage in Place

Many of you have probably seen this widely-circulated Coronavirus meme:  It’s funny because it’s true, almost painfully so.  Over the past few weeks, every single pilgrimage that Coracle had planned for this year has been canceled, postponed or called seriously into...