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Walking in Tempo with the Spirit
Walking in tempo with the Spirit: this is a refrain with me at least since my college years, when I felt after playing the harpsichord one day that the music even afterwards was communicating between my feet and the ground as I walked back across campus. Perhaps this memory is why the image of “walking” rather than dancing occurs to me; although it could also be because walking suggests a journey, whereas dancing suggests sheer sabbath delight in the present moment (interestingly, the way Ric describes feeling on the bicycle, for though he’s moving in a direction, it’s for the sensation of riding, not to get to a destination). Continue Reading
Bicycling with Benedict
Spring has paid us a delicious couple of visits over the past month. We all know that it’s not the real thing; neither do we care. We all seem to share a collective willingness to accept the gift and get out in it, most of us with some physical activity. I have taken Spring’s visits as opportunities to take to the road on my bike. Continue Reading
Interspecies Hospitality
Ric has written of the Benedictine qualities of his canine companion, and the Psalms often depict animals gamboling about and rejoicing before God. And of all the many events of this past week in my own life, the one that stands out the most just now concerns another interspecies encounter. Continue Reading
The Woman with Five Husbands
Though I sense I am a minority among Oblates on this score, statistically there are a great number of women and men over 30 who are not settled in a marriage, yet not called to a vocation of celibacy, and not always easily classifiable as “single.” Continue Reading
"Mom:" a Southern Baptist Benedictine?
My paternal grandmother, “Mom,” was the most stable person I’ve ever known, both in the Benedictine sense and otherwise. Continue Reading
Moseying Along
Today I met a new human being face-to-face for the first time, and of course he did not look like what I thought he would look like. He is quite large and I am quite small. He also does not walk at the rapid pace I and most of my companions walk. And in asking me to slow down as we took a longer walk than he has taken in a long time, he told me that when he was living in Buloxi, on 107 degree days, you could always spot the northerners because they would be working up a sweat and getting exhausted because they rushed from place to place. Continue Reading
Canine Model of Benedictine Practice
Can a dog be a Benedictine? Probably not. But, as I observe my 9 ½ year old miniature schnauzer, Elway, I notice that he often displays behavior that reflects St. Benedict’s Rule. Continue Reading
God on the Throne
This week I’ve been writing a review of Flora Keshgegian’s God Reflected: Metaphors for Life. It’s an accessible survey of seven metaphors or images for God, from king to parent to divine energy. Each image is grounded in biblical examples, and its strengths and limitations are described (along with the kinds of prayer each image invites). Keshgegian is especially interested in what depiction of divine power is implied by each image–how each image depicts God as acting in the world. Continue Reading
Is Christmas ever really over?
My Aunt Thelma, “Auntie,” was a second mother to me, from my birth until her death in May of 2000. She never married and I sometimes wonder if maybe I was part of the reason for her remaining single. Did she somehow see other relationships as disloyal? (I do remember a telephone call when I was three or four when I asked to spend a Friday night with her, as I normally did. She told me that she had a date that night and I seem to remember pouting about it for a time. Did she secretly vow never to let another man interfere with our standing Friday night sleep-over? She never mentioned another conflict and I spent almost every Friday night of my life with her until my teens when I found my own Friday night conflicts. I’m afraid I was not nearly as loyal as she was.) Continue Reading
Benedictine Oblate Musings 