A quote attributed to Cornel West sums up my feelings in this current political season, “I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope.” I skipped watching the national debate, knowing that my social media feeds would be flooded with “highlights.” It turns out I didn’t miss much, and I spent the next several days afterward lamenting, with many others, that these two men were our only choices. … More A Prisoner of Hope
This Christmas Eve we gathered outside the chapel in subzero temps under the stars that decorated Christ’s birth. In the midst of a global pandemic, we could not gather inside the chapel together. Still we came, the few but faithful, to receive the Holy Eucharist while trembling in the cold, and perhaps trembling with anxiety in these uncertain days. … More Christmas Communion (in Subzero Temps)
This ancient shipwreck story is a timely reminder that a ship divided against itself cannot stay afloat; we must come together if we are to make it through the night. … More Shipwrecked 4: Breaking Bread in the Political Storm
I’ve retreated for a night (or two) to one of my favorite sanctuaries, the St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, MN. What better reading at a monastery than St. John Chrysostom’s classic treatise on the sacred vocation of the priesthood written around 374 AD. My jaw dropped to the floor as I read his description of … More ‘Marvelous Things, Charged with Terror’
Sitting around that table the hidden face of God suddenly becomes visible. The stranger becomes a dear friend. The empty hole in our heart is suddenly filled. The darkness is vanquished by piercing light. Hope is resurrected to dance a jig on the corpse of Despair. At that table the lump in our throat is replaced by an irresistible burning in our heart. … More Faces Downcast to Eyes Opened
Jeremy L. Berg 