by Bill Haley | Mar 22, 2019 | Contemplative Life, Justice and Mercy
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a lot to do! Most people I know really want to make a difference in the world and make it a better place for more people. Many of us struggle to pray more and be with God more deeply as the deepest way we respond to the...
by Wade Ballou | Mar 20, 2019 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
Friends, we are well into our season of Lent. I have come to see this season as an invitation by Christ to lean in to be in him and with him in union with the Father, through the strength of the Holy Spirit. The idea of Lent and its practices have developed over many...
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 Bill Haley | Mar 8, 2019 | Contemplative Life, Creation
I love Lent. Somehow it gives me the opportunity again to honestly own what I deeply know––I am a sinner, and sin. In the words of the confession from the 1559 Book of Common Prayer (see below) which we sometimes still say, “There is no health in us”. Lent reminds...
by Scott Buresh | Mar 6, 2019 | Contemplative Life
By: Scott Buresh, Coracle Spiritual Director Lent is a sweet anticipated season for me. Each year, I remember the image of coming home to the warm embrace of the Prodigal Father, eagerly awaiting my return. Dallas Willard describes repentance, central to the season...
by Bill Haley | Feb 15, 2019 | Contemplative Life
When you arrive, you’ll see a small plaque on our front porch that reads, “Bidden or not bidden, God is present”. God will be present to you here. God has given us this space so that others can find him, and he likes to be found, and he likes to find us! Your retreat...
by Bill Haley | Feb 15, 2019 | Contemplative Life
On the desktop of my computer I keep a document called “Current Quotes”, easily found to be opened quickly (the app Evernote works just as well). It’s for brief thoughts and quotes, from deeply trusted sources that reveal deep truths and that speak to me in the...
by Bill Haley | Feb 7, 2019 | Contemplative Life, For the World
When I was growing up, there was a funny little toy called Stretch Armstrong. Made of soft rubber and dressed only in tiny blue wrestler’s shorts with blond hair painted on, there was really only one thing you could do with him: stretch his arms as far apart as they...
by Bill Haley | Jan 24, 2019 | Contemplative Life
We wrestle with God for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes, we want to wrestle because of what we see “out there”– a culture moving in the wrong direction, the moral failings of trusted leaders, the disunity and strife amongst God’s people, etc. ...
by Bill Haley | Jan 18, 2019 | Contemplative Life, Justice and Mercy
As we approach the national holiday honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, it’s easy (and right) to contemplate his activism and commit to carrying on that legacy of justice for all and especially for those who have the hardest time finding it. It...
by Bill Haley | Jan 4, 2019 | Contemplative Life, Creation, Liturgical Seasons
Almost 10 years ago, we moved from the inner-city of Washington to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. There are at least two things I haven’t gotten used to yet, and hope I never will be. Both are arresting. Both can stop you in your tracks with a sense of awe,...
by Coracle | Dec 26, 2018 | Contemplative Life
By: John Gardner Many people know the story of how Franz Gruber, an organist in Oberndorf, Austria, whose organ was broken, hurriedly composed the melody for “Silent Night” for guitar on Christmas Eve, 1818 – two hundred years ago today. The bicentennial has gone...
by Bill Haley | Dec 14, 2018 | Contemplative Life
Earlier this week Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for illegal acts committed while in service to Donald Trump. Until this week I’ve not given much thought to Michael Cohen and bear him no ill will, but I do think his story warrants attention as a...
by Bill Haley | Dec 5, 2018 | Contemplative Life
“Oh Lord, please light the fire / That once burned bright and clear. Replace the lamp of my first love / That burns with holy fear.” -Keith Green I’m really excited about a new retreat we’re offering at Corhaven on Saturday, February 23. Jesus is so great that...
by Bill Haley | Nov 30, 2018 | Contemplative Life
I’m not a big birthday guy. Most years I’m content to quietly let the day pass without a lot of notice and a simple dinner with loved ones, with some time to reflect and pray in gratitude. But this year I tip over some sort of edge into my 50s, and as I’ve done on...
by Bill Haley | Nov 29, 2018 | Contemplative Life, Coracle News
Well, friends, it’s been another remarkable year of watching God work through Coracle. What really fires me up is comments like these from folks we’ve walked with in the last year, just a sample of many… “My life, praise the Lord, will never be the same. “ “I can...
by Bill Haley | Nov 20, 2018 | Contemplative Life, Creation
“O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!” Ps. 30.12 Of course we all go through challenging seasons, and seasons when we might feel a little depressed, or things aren’t turning out quite the way we thought or not at all the way we hoped or wanted. It’s too...
by Bill Haley | Nov 15, 2018 | Contemplative Life
I’d been on that roof top many times in Kathmandu, and never seen it. But when last there and our group was taking the Eucharist on that same roof top deck, one of our members suddenly exclaimed, “Look! There’s a Himalaya!” And indeed there it was, one mighty...
by Bill Haley | Nov 9, 2018 | Contemplative Life
At the end of a week when our eyes have been focused on the mid-term elections of 2018 in the United States, we can be grateful that our country’s governmental model–based on the checks and balance of power–worked yet again. For those most concerned about the...
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...
