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Showing posts with the label Prayer

Wordless

I'm in the midst of starting my own business and I'm attempting to write content for my website.  This has to be the hardest writing assignment I've ever faced!  I write a few sentences and then scribble them out because...because they suck.  As evidenced from my lack of blog posting here, I'm out of practice.  And yet, I'm not.  I've been creating samples for my website and those are not all that difficult.  I'm stuck on trying to sell my business. If my business were about pulling garlic mustard or some other related thing, I bet I'd have no difficulty.  I'm excited and frustrated at the same time.  Is that even possible?  Who's the patron saint of writers?  Ah, here he is Except another source claims it is St. Paul.  Anyway, Sts. Paul and Francis, pray for this sinful writer.

Ite Incendite

     Among the many topics my spiritual director and I discuss, we always return to prayer.  That should be obvious for anyone who knows anything about spiritual directors or anyone who practices a spiritual or religious life.  The discussion turned to speaking in tongues because I think I talk too much when I pray.  I can't shut that nous up, as the Eastern Orthodox sorta say.      Having grown up Pentecostal, speaking in tongues was de rigueur for most of the services I attended--I think I was 15 or 16 years old when I first "spoke" this way myself.  For the next few years I used this gift without knowing much about it.  Mind you, I wasn't the guy yelling in tongues all the time (I don't think I've ever yelled in that language) nor was I the interpreter--I haven't been graced with that charism.  Part of the problem was it wasn't  explained much in my circles--you just did it, if you had it.  If you did...

Another Publishing Triumph

...for a so-so book. http://erb.kingdomnow.org/15-days-of-praying-with-st-john-of-the-cross-brief-review/ Thanks again to the Englewood Review of Books.

Creation Sunday Invocation

Today was Creation Sunday at our humble church in sunny, suburban Livonia. What is that? Simply, a day of worship focusing our gratitude for God's great gift of creation that enables us to breathe, drink, eat, and do many other things that corporeal beings do so well. It is a day of deliberation to think about sharing these gifts and stewarding them for generations to come. This is no reaction to the times--this is the Gospel--part of it, anyway, that far too many evangelicals have ignored. Anyway, BK liked my invocational prayer I composed so I post it here (my blog which links to FaceBook) for your kindly critiques. I'm still not happy with it, but I'm just so frickin' picky when I write. Can you find where I stole from Ray Bradbury and Gerard Manley Hopkins? Father, Maker of the Universe, What can we offer that compares with the extravagant gifts of air, soil, and water You so graciously bestowed upon your creatures? What picture can we paint that rivals your s...