“Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive?” —Matthew 18:21 Forgiveness is quite possibly the most difficult and yet essential action necessary for anyone living in community. Unless we’re hermits, that includes all …

I am driving down the road toward my favorite walking site. It’s humid, but nothing like it was yesterday. I’m overwhelmed. I can’t even finish reading any articles right now. International news, social issues, issues of faith. Just as one …

I’ve lived my whole life trying to figure out how to outmaneuver suffering; yes, how to fly away. But I have no wings. What if I just surrender to Thich Nhat Hanh’s idea and let my suffering open to its …

I turn to art, as I always do, in trying to understand the holy. The first thing that came to me initially as I dove into the miracle of the loaves and fishes was a perfect carving of two identical …

There’s a Mary that’s gotten me through the recent hard times, having found myself so exhausted and desperate for the simplest of images, when prayer becomes too hard. Mary Untier of Knots is a painting from 1700 Germany by Johann …

I rely on certain passages from the psalms as my daily guide; most essentially, the words from Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path.” At the end of 2021, as I was …