by Coracle | Jan 5, 2021 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
by Bill Simmons, President & CEO of American Leprosy Missions What is that nagging feeling I have? Why do I feel a heaviness in my heart? Something is clawing at my mind, clouding my eyes, preventing me from seeing the road ahead. As this year draws to a close,...
by Drew Masterson | Dec 2, 2020 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
The Advent Season presents us with the invitation to slow down, to shear away the clutter and noise of our lives enough to dwell on some of the richest themes in human existence. We can observe how these themes play out in the grand drama of Scripture, as well as in...
by Coracle | Nov 30, 2020 | Contemplative Life
In these Simple Soundings devotionals, Coracle staff and Spiritual Directors offer bite-sized reflections to be enjoyed at any time, to help keep your spirit nourished on the Journey with God. “Simple Soundings” Devotional...
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 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 | 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 Coracle | May 11, 2020 | Contemplative Life
May 7th, 2020– Coracle Associate, Barbara Ryan offered a Digital Soundings Seminar on “Handling the Grief of COVID-19 and Other Interruptions: When Life Hurts.” Below, you can listen to or watch the recording of the Seminar and get access to a number of...
by Barbara Ryan | May 11, 2020 | Contemplative Life
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...
by Barbara Ryan | May 7, 2020 | Contemplative Life
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...
by Coracle | Apr 27, 2020 | Contemplative Life
On April 23, 2020, in the thick of the global health crisis sparked by the Coronavirus, Rev. Bill Haley delivered this Digital Soundings Seminar as a means of reframing the current cultural moment in light of the realities of the global and historic church. Please...
by Kate Harris | Dec 20, 2019 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
“While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.” Luke 2:6 (NIV) In an unknown town, a week’s distance from the womanly wisdom of mother, sisters, aunts, it began. Plodding heavily beside...
by Bill Haley | Nov 8, 2019 | Church Unity, For the World, Justice and Mercy, Pilgrimage
Coracle’s first pilgrimage to understand immigration issues and the forces that are driving tens of thousands of people northwards from Central America is now done. We flew from Washington DC to Guatemala, and then on through Mexico to Juarez and then El Paso,...
by Karla Petty | Nov 5, 2019 | Church Unity, For the World, Pilgrimage
In late September of 2018, I began a journey that started in Rome and ended in Kathmandu. In Italy, my purpose was witnessing my older brother’s ordination into the diaconate of the Roman Catholic Church. In Nepal, it was to witness God’s church at work in the...
by Drew Masterson | Sep 24, 2019 | Contemplative Life, Creation
Robert Frost once defined poetry as a “way of remembering what it would impoverish us to forget.” Poetry emerged as the first form of literary writing in human history way back in the 3rd Millennium BCE, and indeed the vast majority of ancient literature comes down to...
by Coracle | Sep 23, 2019 | Contemplative Life
In mid-May of this year, 2019 Coracle Fellow and accomplished painter, Carolyn Marshall Wright, sustained a serious concussion. The injury, from which she is still recovering, left her largely confined to her home for the next four months, where she alternated between...
by Karla Petty | Aug 20, 2019 | Contemplative Life, Pilgrimage
I. Kyrie II. Gloria III. Credo IV. Sanctus and Benedictus V. Agnus Dei We’ve just finished another Coracle pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain. This time, we walked along the Camino Portuguese using the Coastal Route option. It leads you for...
by Coracle | Aug 14, 2019 | Coracle News
by Lori Smith “Jesus is here and He is loving you,” Bill said to me as I began my retreat out at Corhaven several years back. It was a message I couldn’t fully embrace yet. I knew God loved me, I’d known that for as long as I could remember. BUT … there had...
by Bill Haley | Jul 5, 2019 | Church Unity, For the World, Justice and Mercy
This past Sunday I preached at The Falls Church Anglican on one of the most confusing and important verses in the Bible: Colossians 1.24 “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the...
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 Coracle | Jul 4, 2016 | For the World, Justice and Mercy
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...