….It was hard to imagine getting our little ragtag group back to a comfortable level of dialogue, let alone a fluid, exultant exchange, but that one simple question, asked after an instant of prayer, transformed everything. How does the life of Jesus change your understanding of God? The answers came, one after another, from ValContinue reading “Alistair the Barrister, redeemed”
Tag Archives: Taize
Alistair the Barrister
After our morning Bible study, one of our new English friends dropped us off in the nearby town of Cluny— home to the first Benedictine monastery— for a walk-about and some lunch. We scrambled to get a bus back in time for our afternoon study group, which was now comprised of me, Michael, who couldContinue reading “Alistair the Barrister”
Jesus, the name of God (yikes!)
I don’t know what it’s like where you live, but in L.A. it’s much safer to drop the F-bomb than the J-word in mixed company. If you’re in the South— Mississippi, Alabama, Texas— droppin’ Jesus’s name is no more controversial than ordering a Coca-Cola, but in the major coastal cities of the U.S., it simplyContinue reading “Jesus, the name of God (yikes!)”
Clean at last
One might think that time spent in a monastic community anchored in ethereal chant music might pass in a dream state, floating effortlessly from one inspired moment to another. Someone else might have had that experience but for me Taize was a constant string of strategic and tactical decisions designed to maximize one-of-a-kind learning, prayer,Continue reading “Clean at last”
How joyful are the lights
Journal Entry, Thursday nite: “A hundred flickering votives, the slow devotions dancing and bursting, they move wildly, beyond all control, but never seem to blow themselves out. The flame holds steady fed by whatever the source of wind is here inside the sanctuary. The Spirit in us, we dance, we burst, we do not sitContinue reading “How joyful are the lights”
Heather Choate Davis 