Journal

Tag: Prayer

Who, me? Journal?…Really?

By: Desiree Barker Coracle Spiritual Director, Northern Virginia I will begin by saying that I did not grow up keeping a diary or a journal. I had two younger sisters and writing down personal things in a diary was not a safe activity at our house! While in college, I...

I Believe

By: Yonce Shelton Coracle Spiritual Director December 2016  I believe because I go to the woods and am met.  I go not to get away from, but to draw closer to. I go with desire.  Or a question.  Or the sense that I carry something.  Or three words on a sticky note.  I...

Welcome to 2017!

2017 is going to be a big, strange year, full of challenges, with much uncertainty.  You feel it.  We all do.  I do, deeply. And just like it is true at the beginning of every new year, the world needs more people who are alive and strong in God to powerfully be his...

The Gift of Contemplation

On my journey with Christ I have considered myself many things:  a redeemed, rescued, forgiven, beloved child of God; Jesus’s friend; Jesus’s co-laborer in the world; God’s handiwork created in His image.  But rarely have I identified with being a “contemplative,” one...

Hope on Election Day? Yes.

The deep Monday morning sigh when the alarm goes off too early after a night of poor sleep is perhaps the best parallel to describe how I feel as an American facing the November 8 election.  I am resigned to what is facing me and will get up and move forward, but am...

Vision and Hope in Albania

Bill and I have just returned from a wonderful two days in Albania with the World Vision staff from Albania and Kosovo. World Vision has an annual global Day of Prayer, and for their particular observance of this day the team decided to have an overnight retreat. This...

“Whiplash, Grief, Nausea, Anger, and Action”

We haven’t even recovered from Orlando yet, but the news keeps coming.  Here’s a very incomplete list of the most recent round of ‘too many gut–punching atrocities to keep up with’ just in the last 10 days or so. Israel/Palestine–children of both communities being...

4th of July and #JusticeinKenya

Today while we celebrate our Independence Day in the US, we remember also those who don’t enjoy the same freedoms as we do. We remember states where corruption, violence and injustice is rampant and inhabitants are ruled by fear. We especially are in mourning...

Reflections on the Longest Day of the Year

By: Giovanna Meek June 20th, 2016 was the Summer Solstice in the northern hemisphere, when the sun’s zenith reached its northernmost point away from the equator.  Throughout history, the astronomical events of that day have been cause for celebration across cultures...

Take Me to the Alley

This is a song just released by one of my favorite jazz musicians which I think is such a beautiful representation of how Jesus comes to us, and what he is looking for when he does.  Lyrics are available here.  Jesus beckons us, “come to my table, rest here in...

Christ in the High Places After the Earthquake

You cannot see what you didn’t know was there. Bill Deiss and I are visiting Kathmandu on behalf of the Anglican Relief and Development Fund on the one year anniversary of a devastating earthquake that measured 7.8 on the scale. Christine Jones wrote of this, “The...

Online Resources We ♥

Check out this list of resources we love and avail yourself of some of them! We have found their help significant in making the word of God, its wisdom, and its application more accessible in our lives.  We hope you will enjoy them too! Printable PDF accessible here,...
Loving the Body God Gave You

Loving the Body God Gave You

Join us on April 16th for a retreat led by Margot Eyring, Spiritual Director with Coracle, and Faith Evans, a pastor in Harrisonburg, VA.  See the details about the retreat and more information about the leaders in the flyer below and click anywhere on it for a link...

Deepening Prayer Retreat – April 2

The word “contemplative” can seem incongruous in our lightning-fast world, sounding painstakingly slow, or even archaic. For many, life is about results, and the results that count are tangible, quantifiable ones. Prayer doesn’t always produce those,...

When Nouwen Hooked Me

I was in my very early 20s when using A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants that I stumbled across this prayer from a man unknown to me then–Henri Nouwen.  What he wrote pierced my heart, and set me off to find more of what he had written, and there was...

A Prayer to Open Lent

This is one of my all-time favorite poems and prayers, from a man well-acquainted with God, and with sin.  Regarding sin, who cannot agree with his refrain, “I have more”. Yet it ends in hope and freedom from fear, which is precisely the destination of journey of Lent...