For nothing will be impossible with God. – Luke, 1:37 The mountain in L’Alpiniste is a glacial boulder floating in mid-air. The cloud is blue. The sky is white. In a climate too frigid to support life stands an underdressed figure unaffected by the cold, a cat strapped to his back like a knapsack. Nothing … Read more
Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at his disposition, and listening to His voice in the depths of our hearts. – Mother Theresa The bodybuilding exercises my friend Camille incorporates into our powerwalks along the St. Charles River include simple movements like sit-ups and squats. I wish we would skip the jumping … Read more
Be still, and know that I am God. – Psalm 46:10 During times of fear and anxiety, people have often turned to Psalm 46 for comfort. In his meditation on this psalm, Timothy Keller explains why. The psalmist, he tells us, is contrasting earthly cities to the heavenly city, the city of God; while the … Read more
The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. – Harriet Beecher-Stowe On one side of Nous en prendrons bien soin, people of this world. Opposite them, people from another. In the woman’s long legs and the shape of her hair is something of the four-legged being. She comes … Read more
Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God. – Karl Barth The inspiration for Sœur Odélie-Ursule-Ida-Émonde de l’Incarnation (1919 – 2020) is neither a splatter nor a stain offered up from a sidewalk, but a formation resulting from improperly sanded wood that has been painted over multiple times. This sister goose appeared to … Read more
Salvation is a helmet. – Vance Havner « Moi, je ne vois que trois bites, » says my friend from his little box in the Zoom call. I am holding up Malas noticias, that week’s artwork of choice. I had seen snakes, which seemed comical enough. Dicks, though? That’s funny! Three years later, it’s my boyfriend’s turn … Read more
The will of God, to which the law gives expression, is that men should defeat their enemies by loving them. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer Loup is no wolf; he’s just a bird dressed in a wolf pelt. Where did he get this pelt, and why does he choose to wear it? This thing is clearly not … Read more
Art, like prayer, is a hand outstretched in the darkness seeking for some touch of grace which will transform it into a hand that bestows gifts. – Franz Kafka In his book, Prayer, Timothy Keller takes us inside Flannery O’Connor’s A Prayer Journal, which she started in 1946 while studying at the University of Iowa. … Read more