2023-01-15: Rev MLK Jr: Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative …
2023-01-12: Finished reading: How to Be Normal by Phil Christman 📚
2022-12-22: A Xmas shopping day out.
2022-12-19: Finished reading: Atomic Habits by James Clear 📚
2022-11-20: Notes on *Christ the Stranger* I want to return to Christ the Stranger: The Theology of Rowan Williams by Benjamin Myers 📚 …
2022-11-04: Some time ago, I posted a hauntingly beatiful meditation on death that I heard shared from Father …
2022-11-03: Finished reading: The This by Adam Roberts 📚 It’s been some time since I read any fiction. …
2022-11-03: Quid Pro Quo Paul Mariani Just after my wife’s miscarriage (her second in four months), I was …
2022-10-28: Bitter-Sweet By George Herbert AH, my dear angry Lord, Since Thou dost love, yet strike; Cast down, …
2022-10-13: Thank you, Robin Sloan, for sharing this video about the small band of vital craftsmen, the …
2022-10-12: Resurrection Poem(s) I want to revisit Piero della Francesca’s Resurrection. After sharing a Wendell Berry poem …
2022-10-10: The sky was as full of motion and change as the desert beneath it was monotonous and still, - and …
2022-10-06: Poŝtolka (Prague) Christian Wiman When I was learning words and you were in the bath there was a …
2022-10-05: The Mystery of Death A funeral hymnn cited by Fr John Behr in this talk on the economy of God: I weep and I wail when I …
2022-09-30: The Quality of Sprawl Les Murray Sprawl is the quality of the man who cut down his Rolls-Royce into …
2022-09-30: Prayer at the Grunewald Alter Prayer for Persons Troubled in Mind or Conscience Blessed Lord, the Father of mercies, and the God …
2022-09-22: Finished reading: Being Christian by Rowan Williams 📚
2022-09-07: Finished reading: Christ the Stranger: The Theology of Rowan Williams by Benjamin Myers 📚
2022-08-26: “Death is Not The End” Bob Dylan: The Tree of Life is growing where the Spirit never …
2022-08-25: Finished reading: Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung 📚
2022-08-25: Now and Then Frederick Buechner: Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. …
2022-08-24: The Most Unique Airbnb in Every U.S. State
2022-08-24: Ten Mins with Cash A nineteen year old Ken Myers interviews Johnny Cash.
2022-08-24: WH Auden (via Alan Jacobs): As readers, we remain in the nursery stage so long as we cannot …
2022-08-23: When bae makes too much green drink and delivers heaps in the french press pitcher.
2022-08-10: Finished reading: Theology as a Way of Life by Adam Neder 📚
2022-08-03: Desert Sky
2022-07-26: Sunday Rain
2022-07-26: Finished reading: Salvation in My Pocket: Fragments of Faith and Theology by Benjamin Myers 📚
2022-07-14: Stay A Blessing for Ascension Day By Jan Richardson I know how your mind rushes ahead trying to …
2022-06-30: Alignment with The Purpose of God Tessa Carman (on Rowan Williamses book Looking East in Winter): To recover wholeness means both …
2022-06-16: Green Zeppelin I’m posting this mashup video as an example of what Jeremy Begbie calls “hyper …
2022-06-10: Nick Cave - The Red Hand Files - Issue #196 - In your opinion, what is God? : The Red Hand Files …
2022-05-28: Finished reading: The Christian Faith: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine by Colin Gunton 📚
2022-05-12: New Creation It must be that the church is in Eastertide that I keep thinking about New Creation. I added a tag …
2022-05-12: Gold, Jerry, Gold I think, almost daily, of this passage from Robert Jenson: The truly necessary qualification is not …
2022-05-11: St Augustine: If to obtain the temporal inheritance of his human father, a man must be born of the …
2022-05-06: I heard chatter from some swirling blue jays and turned to find, just off the walking trail, this:
2022-05-06: Rowan Williams: This is what God’s mercy is: an unconditional gift of incalculable cost. It can …
2022-05-05: From the liturgy of the eucharist by the Society of St. John the Evangelist. Words attributed to St. …
2022-05-04: G.K. Chesterton: Mr. McCabe thinks that I am not serious but only funny, because Mr. McCabe thinks …
2022-05-02: Clensing the Temple “Cleansing the Temple” Malcolm Guite Come to your Temple here with liberation And …
2022-05-02: 'Hallowed Legends' From the last lines of “On Fairy Stories” (PDFs of the article are easily unearthed), …
2022-04-26: In a Fresh Air interview, Zain Asher describes her mother training her in what she calls ‘the …
2022-04-26: Play, Improv, Humor Mark Sebanc’s article makes the case that Tolkien deployed the serious and learned device of …
2022-04-25: Sacred Space Nick Cave’s Sacred Space. Joseph Campbell spoke of the sacred place as that place where: …
2022-04-21: “On Angels” By Czeslaw Milosz All was taken away from you: white dresses, wings, even existence. Yet I believe …
2022-04-20: Logos and Writing After listening to a reading of Mark Sebanc’s article on the Logos in Tolkien on Mars Hill …
2022-04-16: From The Front Porch Republic: A poem by Wendell Berry on this fresco: For Giannozzo Pucci “Why …
2022-04-14: Negative Achievement Karl Barth: Epistle to the Romans, iii. 22: Jesus stands among sinners as a sinner; he sets himself …
2022-04-11: The Improvisation of Hospitality Helmut Thielicke (via Alan Jacobs): You will never learn who Jesus Christ is by reflecting upon …
2022-04-11: Jamming your machine Laity Lodge has just published their retreat schedule for this summer! What a thrill. To that end, …
2022-04-06: Kierkegaard: So to pray is to breathe, possibility, is for the self what oxygen is for breathing. …
2022-03-27: "Emptied Himself" Gerard Hopkins, Letters: ‘This mind was in Christ Jesus’—[St. Paul] means as man: being …
2022-03-26: Cormac McCarthy: In an older time, writers filled pages with quotation marks, commas, semi colons, …
2022-03-26: Jean-Pierre de Caussade on the ‘sacrament of the present moment’: All we need to know …
2022-03-19: Time Like Metal via FPR, Wendell Berry: Time is said to flow like a river. I have said so myself, and perhaps it …
2022-03-16: Sacrament of The Present Moment Listening to some interviews with John Swinton, I noticed him, more than once make reference to what …
2022-03-10: Two things that sparked joy in me today: Spirited Away on stage! Shackleton’s ship was found in the …
2022-03-08: Accompaniment In this conversation, former nurse and now professor John Swinton mentions the theme of …
2022-03-07: The Virtue of Dolly: She gets the joke Mary Townsend: One perennial human obstacle to virtue, Aristotle observes, is that most of us think …
2022-03-07: More on The Sacrament of The Present Moment Jean-Pierre de Caussade: God’s order and his divine will is the life of all souls who either seek …
2022-03-01: TS Eliot: If this is a world in which I, and the majority of my fellow-beings, live in that …
2022-02-25: The Cross Where Fantasy Dies Yet the noble despair of the poets Is nothing of the sort; it is silly To refuse the tasks of time …
2022-02-25: DREAMS
2022-02-22: An Education Father Zossima: …be not forgetful of prayer. Every time you pray, if your prayer is sincere, …
2022-02-22: Nightbirde: I am God’s downstairs neighbor, banging on the ceiling with a broomstick.
2022-02-21: Kyle Strobel Here are five things I've learned from Kyle Strobel after listening to a smattering of podcasts with …
2022-02-21: The Long Defeat J.R.R. Tolkien:1 Actually I am a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect …
2022-02-16: Useful thinkers come in three varieties From Alan Jacobs: Useful thinkers come in three varieties. The Explainer knows stuff I don’t know …
2022-02-04: The Difference Between Contemplation and Meditation According to Kyle Strobel's reading of Jonathan Edwards and Puritan spirituality, there is a vital …
2022-02-04: Pascal, Pensées: I consider Jesus Christ in all persons and in ourselves: Jesus Christ as a father …
2022-01-31: Imitation Thomas à Kempis: Gifts of nature are common to good and bad, but grace or love is the peculiar gift …
2022-01-29: Grace Robert Farrar Capon: I said grace cannot prevail until law is dead, until moralizing is out of the …
2022-01-28: Feast Day of Isaac the Syrian Today is the feast day of Isaac the Syrian. Here is one of his works included in a volume compiled …
2022-01-28: Psalm 421 As a deer longs for a coursing stream, so my soul longs for you, God. My soul thirsts …
2022-01-28: Education: What we give over and hand on Rowan Williams: We are used to plaintive cries that not enough students opt for scientific …
2022-01-22: Love's as Warm as Tears Love’s as Warm as Tears C.S. Lewis Love’s as warm as tears, Love is tears: Pressure within the …
2022-01-18: The Great Iconoclast C.S. Lewis from A Grief Observed: My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time …
2022-01-03: A Christian Ethic for now Alan Jacobs: So maybe a “general account” is not what is needed so much as equipment for acting …
2022-01-01: "Year’s End" BY Richard Wilbur Now winter downs the dying of the year, And night is all a settlement of snow; From the soft street …
2021-12-25: Christmas Poem: New Heaven, New War By Robert Southwell SJ, Martyr at 33 [...] This little babe, so few days old, Is come to rifle …
2021-12-09: Two Quotes re: productivity, work, and interruptions From Wendell Berry’s essay “Christianity and The Survival of Creation” (Via A. Jacob’s …
2021-12-02: Advent Sunday Christian Rossetti Advent Sunday Christian Rossetti BEHOLD, the Bridegroom cometh: go ye out With lighted lamps and …
2021-11-23: Prayer Work Tish Harrison Warren: Prayer itself is a kind of work and it sends us into our work in the world. …
2021-11-04: Room Looking ahead to my own sons baptism this coming Sunday, these words from Russel Moore brought me a …
2021-11-04: The Idea of Hermeneutics Biblical hermeneutics has traditionally been understood as the study of right principles for …
2021-09-02: Symbolic Fallout Ivan Illich via L.M. Sacassas: I would like to get … people to think about what tools do to …
2021-09-02: Lex orandi, lex credendi
2021-08-23: Festina Lente The latin phrase translates to something like “make haste, slowly.” Used as a motto for …
2021-08-09: Robin and the two eyes This imagined map of Robin Sloan’s favorite email newsletters inspires me. He uses his …
2021-08-08: I can’t wait to see when Methexis will host another coference.
2021-08-05: Aestivation: - a state of animal dormancy, similar to hibernation, although taking place in the …
2021-08-02: Ben Op Hospitality Carl Truman mentioned the Benedict Option in a podcast interview I heard recently. It led me to see …
2021-08-02: Hypostatic Hermeneutic In an article about the poetry of doubt and faith, Christian Wiman brings together Christology with …
2021-08-01: A Doorway of Time Christine Smallwood via James K.A Smith in Image Journal: “It’s hard to know when something ends,” …
2021-08-01: On this episode of Luninous podcast, Makoto Fujimura names Agnes Martin as one of his major …
2021-07-29: The Lazarus Poet Leafing thru this list of peotry resources from poet Christian Wiman, I found a great article on …
2021-07-29: Remember Me Last week, about this time, I set off for my maiden voyage to Laity Lodge. There, I met some great …
2021-07-15: There are only two things that pierce the human heart. One is beauty. The other is affliction. …
2021-07-07: Awesome Love BY CZESLAW MILOSZ Love means to learn to look at yourself The way one looks at distant things For …
2021-07-02: Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. …
2021-06-24: Contemplation: Killing evil There is something in our soul that loathes true attention much more violently than flesh loathes …
2021-06-23: Bridge to The Hemispheres I first heard these bits of C.S. Lewis brought together in a talk by the poet Rev Malcolm Guite. …
2021-06-22: Funny: ow, ow [Dadid Foster] Wallace missed what [C.S.] Lewis missed in observing his pupil Betjeman: Irony is not …
2021-06-18: Moon Phase My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by …
2021-06-11: In the most recent Trinity Forum conversation with Amy and Andy Crouch, Andy offered a simple but …
2021-06-03: What is courage? Something I read recently said it was less like heroic boldness and more like the …
2021-06-02: To Stay: A poetic definition Abide means sickness and sarcoma, waves at your chin and satan’s grin won’t swallow. …
2021-05-31: Surrender and Control I stumbled on an Andy Anderson skate video on Chris Hannah’s blog. Andy lives the …
2021-05-21: Finished reading: Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide by John Cleese 📚 In this book, I found …
2021-05-18: I love the creativity and usabilty of POSSE, seeing plenty of M.b folks cross-post their Letterboxd …
2021-05-16: Currently reading: Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover 📚
2021-05-16: Bon Iver with some of The National folks…a perfect late-night anthem for my CPE …
2021-05-14: From two great poets in their own right Nick Cave and Nick Wolerstorff, here are two similar, …
2021-05-13: In a painting by Australian Aboriginal artist Shirley Purdie, the ascension of Jesus is shown not as …
2021-05-12: Can't Buy Me Love or Hospitality Today, I want the framework of my consumptive desires visible. I want to denaturalize the compulsion …
2021-05-11: A guide to a vantage point In order that a new asceticism of reading may come to flower, we must first recognize that the …
2021-05-08: CPE Residency: Eight highlights in eight months of work Learning the rhythm of “action, reflection, action.” Working on how to do cold-call ministry by …
2021-04-30: Beauty for The Sake of The Good “In a world without beauty––even if people dispense with the word and constantly have it on the tip …
2021-04-26: "Some kind of beauty..." So rescue yourself from these general themes and write about what your everyday life offers you; …
2021-04-23: Prayer: A Surge of The Heart “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of …
2021-04-13: A book, Podcast and Grief I look forward to reading J Todd Billings’ recent book, The End of the Christian Life📚. In the …
2021-04-04: In Every Tree We sat outside at church this morning with a Live Oak blocking our view of the preacher. I kept …
2021-04-03: Holy, Harrowing Saturday Does he bear not only his future pain but the wounds, words, deeds, and things of all, for all time: …
2021-04-03: Courage, Freedom, and Humility “Moral advance carries with it intuitions of unity which are increasingly less misleading. …
2021-01-29: A Season for Everything Laity Lodge recently shared a newsletter featuring the ancient Japanese calendar of 72 seasons. Each …
2021-01-28: Literary Hub posted every presidential inauguration poem ever performed to include Amanda …
2021-01-28: With the farming of a verse... Today in 1939, William Butler Yeats dies. In Memory of W. B. Yeats W. H. Auden - 1907-1973 I He …
2020-12-23: Magnificat Rhapsody Mary’s Song A Poem by Luci Shaw Blue homespun and the bend of my breast keep warm this small hot …
2020-12-18: The Agony Philosophers have measur’d mountains, Fathom’d the depths of the seas, of states, and …
2020-12-05: Vocation Signpost This week, I started the winter term of the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) residency. That means …
2020-12-01: Wonder groans in gratitude, grows with awe, and walks hand-in-hand with imagination. Joy bouqueted as …
2020-12-01: Currently reading: Love and the Postmodern Predicament by D. C. Schindler 📚
2020-11-11: I’m entranced by this beautifully produced video on reorientation thru birding as a spiritual …
2020-11-02: Currently reading: Reviving Old Scratch by Richard Beck 📚
2020-10-28: “We must love one another or die.” —W.H. Auden Thank you for the reminder, Nick.
2020-10-18: Notes for a Personal, Integrated Library I’ve been using Goodreads for a few years now to track my reading but more to catalogue books …
2020-10-12: Currently reading: The Apostles’ Creed by Ben Myers 📚 Which is a volume from this mini-series …
2020-10-07: Do not build towers without a foundation, for our Lord does not care so much for the importance of …
2020-10-05: The Magnificent Bribe Why has our age surrendered so easily to the controllers, the manipulators, the conditioners of an …
2020-09-30: “He never lost the wonder.” This new Oliver Sacks doc looks great. I’ve watched …
2020-09-27: I recenlty considered opening a coffee shop nextdoor to Austin’s famed and beatiful …
2020-09-27: Poetry as Memory of God Blogging should sound like talking to myself. But it’s not journaling becasue, while talking …
2020-09-25: Fish, Flash, Seed: Ideas waited for, snagged, and transplanted David Lynch (via Rob Walker and Austin Kleon) uses these three metaphors for a thought: Fish: …
2020-09-15: Beowulf, bro. Robin Sloan: The classic poem Beowulf begins with the Old English word “hwæt,” which has proven …
2020-09-11: "...to desire the help of grace is the beginning of grace..." —St. Augustine, On Rebuke and Grace Ch …
2020-09-11: Treebeard in a Forest of Options Benedict, Bombadill, Gandalf, and Beck— Treebeard “supposes.” His option: …
2020-09-10: Tim Ferris interviewed Chuck Palahniuk on his podcast recently. Not long into the interview, …
2020-09-10: Writing on the subjects of diversity and inclusion for some new job stuff, I came across this …
2020-09-01: George Herbert's Pre-sermon Prayer An excerpt from George Herbert’s book A Priest to The Temple: Or The Country Parson, His …
2020-08-28: Narrow Scope Anxiety Possible Answers to Prayer BY SCOTT CAIRNS Your petitions—though they continue to bear just the one …
2020-08-26: Supreme Thanks Thank you, Jenzia Burgos, for the incredible resource of a Black Music History Library. Today, I …
2020-08-25: Every US National Park ranked.
2020-08-14: Prayer is a portal I'm headed to the beach this weekend! Whenever we touch nature we get clean. People who have got …
2020-08-14: Among. (Day 13 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge)
2020-08-13: Feliz–belated–Cumple, HUvB!
2020-08-12: Sound. (Day 12 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) Tree fell.
2020-08-12: Love and Mercy Nick Cave is batting 1,000 on his last few Red Hand Files newsletters. I shared a highlight from the …
2020-08-11: Transport. (Day 11 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) Thanksgiving tower takes me …
2020-08-10: Windows. (Day 10 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge) From back in Oak Cliff where my …
2020-08-10: My friend and I swapped stories of working amidst distractions at home. I told him that I wanted one …
2020-08-09: Black-and-white. (Day 9 of the Micro.blog August Photoblogging Challenge)
2020-08-09: Jazz Gratitude Here are a few of John Coltrane’s words from “A Love Supreme” liner notes: This …
2020-08-09: Currently reading: Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work To God’s Work by Timothy Keller 📚 …
2020-08-05: Wait For It My anxiety shortens my breath. The fundamental instinct of respiration thwarted by fear, worry, too …
2020-07-21: Language Caught Alive "Poetry is language caught alive" Then just call me Joe Exotic and my verse cagey tigers. Netflix …
2020-07-02: Wonder and Bread Image Source Lately, I've been obsessed with the Lone Bellow's latest album, "Half Moon Light." …
2020-06-30: The Tree of Knowledge in The Soil of Being This morning, I watched a few minutes of a Robert Wood lecture on Martin Heidegger. The lecture was …
2020-06-29: A Lesson in The Geometry of The Cross with St Augustine [Of the Cross] Its breadth lies in the transverse beam on which the hands of the Crucified are …
2020-06-22: The Question, The Facts, and The Meaning To believe in God means to understand the question about the meaning of life. To believe in God …
2020-06-18: The Miracle of God's Love When we come to a point in our lives where we are completely ashamed of …
2020-06-17: Gentrification OR Gentle-fication This sort of project ought to be done for Dallas. a book about how Oakland has been shaped by great …
2020-06-15: Dana Gioia on what first drew him to W.H. Auden’s poetry: “Its music, its intelligence, …
2020-06-11: Lament vs Dispair "No Time for Despair" There's an interesting juxtaposition between Toni Morrison's "chaos …
2020-06-09: LitMap and mindmapping tools I love maps and visualization tools because I'm not a linear thinker. Here's one for literary …
2020-06-08: The Media Shaped Memory In his recent newsletter, Michael Sacasas re-articulated Marshall McCluhan's argument that new …
2020-06-05: Days By Philip Larkin What are days for? Days are where we live. They come, they wake us Time and time …
2020-06-04: Emmaus Road Headed West Some time ago, a small detail from the Road to Emmaus story in Luke's Gospel surprised me. It …
2020-06-03: Maintain The Cause of Righteousness I say that not only they who labor for the defense of the gospel but they who in any way maintain …
2020-06-01: The Visitation by Malcolm Guite Here is a meeting made of hidden joys Of lightenings cloistered in a narrow place …
2020-05-31: An Inkling and Collected Wisdom I love reading about the lives of the Inklings—the 20th century group of Oxford eccentrics. Some …
2020-05-29: A Sad State of Affairs Concerning social memory in particular, we may note that images of the past commonly legitimate a …
2020-05-28: Meditation via Mediation: Balthasar, prayer, and The Our Father This morning a listened to a podcast discussion on the work of Hans Urs von Balthasar that sadly …
2020-05-27: One Database to Rule All The Sports OSDB Sports is a new startup that, as the the name suggests, acts as an IMDB for sports. An …
2020-05-24: Book Recommendation 📚 Challenge Sprint: 6 and 7 The Man Who Was Thursday —G.K. Chesterton The …
2020-05-24: How Humans Push and Pull The Internet Resulting in Flow and Stock “Push and Pull” are Chris Dixon’s simplifying patterns of the internet named for …
2020-05-22: Book Recommendation 📚 Challenge Sprint: Day 5 Keep Going —Austin Kleon
2020-05-22: The "Lost" Library of Paris Princeton and its Center for Digital Humanities has worked to “recreate the world of the Lost …
2020-05-21: The Spirit as... “The Thought Fox” I imagine this midnight moment’s forest: Something else is alive …
2020-05-21: Book Recommendation 📚 Challenge Sprint: Catchup Day 4 American Pastoral —Phillip Roth Till We …
2020-05-20: A Color Alphabet Bernadette Sheridan developed a synesthesia visualizer that colors words—specifically names —based …
2020-05-20: GoSLo I pity snails, and all that carry their homes on their backs. —Frodo Baggins
2020-05-19: Web Books Since moving to micro.blog for my personal website, I’ve thought about web design and …
2020-05-19: Prayer as Raid and Surrender “Learning to Think” There is the inner life of thought which is our world of final …
2020-05-18: 4 Habits on Prayer from Hughes Oliphant Old From Chelpka In Leading in Prayer: A Workbook for Ministers, Hughes Oliphant Old describes the kind …
2020-05-16: Looking at The Man in The Mirror From the James Joyce story, “The Dead.” Gabriel stood stockstill for a moment in …
2020-05-16: The Woman in The Mirror A friend from church directed me to this Washington Post article about “Aging in place.” …
2020-05-15: An Update from Chronos Inc. “Here’s How Time Works Now” A Day You may remember that a day used to take place …
2020-05-14: Sound of Sunlight From Futility Closet: Alexander Graham Bell believed that his greatest achievement was the …
2020-05-14: Fifty Reasons to Roadtrip the USofA To borrow a Christian Wiman line: Whisky is the prayer.
2020-05-12: A whole world in a "little bitty" URL itty.bitty
2020-05-12: What's in a name? Their Lonely Betters by W.H. Auden As I listened from a beach-chair in the shade To all the noises …