Epiphany

The world recognizes the heavenly in this tiny Child. And the Child recognizes the people of God in them. This is not a Christian child only; this Child belongs to the world.

Words: Joan Chittister in The Liturgical Year: the spiraling adventure of the spiritual life

Image: Chiefs Come From the East to See Jesus by John Giuliani

Overcome By Light

Christmas—the light that shone upon a manger—was also, the ancients knew, the light that led them on beyond it as well. If God is truly with us, has been manifested among us, companions us as we go, knows our pains and our hopes, then life is not a dark forest from which there is no exit. It is a darkness, however dark, that is always overcome by light.

Words: Joan Chittister in The Liturgical Year

Image: Photograph "Afternoon River" by The Rev. Scott Fisher

Prayer

Prayer
is the breath of the soul,
the life energy of the spirit.
It is the story of the interplay
between God and me.
It is the link
between the inner and outer life.

There is no formula for it beyond the need
to nourish it with both words and silence.

The prayer of words is simply meant
to fill our minds and thoughts
with an awareness of the nature of God
and the attitudes of soul needed
to immerse ourselves in the God-life
until we melt into the presence of God within.

There the great silence of God becomes
the central, major focus of our lives,
the anchor of our hearts,
the stabilizer that carries us
through all the moments of life
on a straight course directly to the heart of God.

Words: Joan Chittister from The Breath of the Soul: Reflections on Prayer (Twenty-Third Publications)

Image: Red Maple and Russian Sage by C. Robin Janning

A Witness To Life

"When Jesus rises from the tomb, he says to Mary Magdalene in the garden, “Go and tell Peter and the others that I have gone before you into Galilee and I will meet them there.” The words are prophetic ones for us all. Jesus does not promise to meet the disciples in Jerusalem, at the center of power and profit, as an Establishment figure of either state or synagogue, as the vindicated and recognized one. No, the last act of Jesus is to lead the disciples to the Galilee, to the backwaters of Israel, to the hinterlands of the poor and dispossessed, to the forgotten and the oppressed ones. Where he had spent his public life on behalf of the forgotten one, he expects us to spend ours."

Words: Sr. Joan Chittister in Ideas In Passing

Image: Life Is Just Outside The Door by The Rev. Earnest Graham

Lent Feels Dark

“In a dark time,” Theodore Roethke wrote, “the eye begins to see.” The dark times in life are not our enemy. Dark times empty the world of the things that would otherwise distract us from seeing the important things. Lent feels dark. Enter the darkness with confidence.

Words by Joan Chittister

Image by Leah Reddy

Advent's Fruit

"Contemplative waiting, purposeful waiting is what makes Christmas an experience rather than simply an event. It is a lesson meant to color the entire year." by Sr. Joan Chittister, read more here.

Seen above: "Pear Study" by Ruth Councell.

Autumn

Joan Chittister reminds us, “Today, Sept. 22, we celebrate the autumn equinox, the only day of the year in which daytime and nighttime are of exactly equal length. From now on daytime will begin to wane. But there is nothing to fear from this diminishment of the kind of life associated with sunlight. The nighttimes of life have their beauty and their lessons, too.”

Seen above, "The Golden Hour" by Brie Dodson