Remind us that resilience is in our bones, that peace will prevail on earth

Here I am, God, here I am. Here I am with the dishes in the sink, the dust on the shelves, the skin on my hands which is drying out and starting to crack. My appetite has gone, without any other bodies to remind my body of itself. I can pray for salvation but my bones know this is all there is....

As a hospital chaplain, I often listen to painful stories. We call it compassionate presence, but I may be crying inside. When words fail, I pray and sing.

December 7, 2016 “Use loneliness. Its ache creates urgency to reconnect with the world.” — Natalie Goldberg I know a little about "merry" meeting "mess" at the holidays — and by a little I mean How much time have you got? Four Christmases ago, a painful break-up sent me spinning into a long...

God has a fondness for what is fragile. This means us. Advent tells us that God came to us—and comes to us still—with complete vulnerability. Christ is to be found among what is fragile—including us, ourselves, when pain and loss have left us feeling less than whole. In coming to us as a...

Calling to Unburden Our play is marked by merriment, but beneath that looms the Other: our worry; our sorrow; our shame, our guilt, our grief. Let us surrender all that to the One who loves us beyond measure, the One who heals us, the One who makes us whole. Silent Prayer Prayer I have failed. I...

O God who gave us life and death, you hold us in your hands. You cradle us in our need, and you push us into growth. We confess to you that all is not well, that we grieve the loss of many things and people....

God of all known by many names, Holy one. It’s in sorrow that I implore your intercession in removing the darkness that has descended upon this land. Heartbroken and filled with pain, we are on the precipice of descending into our lowest form of baseness in despair. Lift the veil of hatred, envy...

Spirit of life and death, Thou who art as present to us in our suffering As in our wellbeing, Abide with us in this permeable time Between dusk and dark. Soothe the secret pains we carry. Bless us with the courage to move toward our grief And not away. When all is hidden— When we find ourselves...

Elie Wiesel was just a wide-eyed and innocent adolescent when he and all the other Jews of the Transylvanian village of Sighet were jammed into cattle cars one April night in 1944 by SS troops, and shipped to Auschwitz....

Universal Spirit of love, O God within each one of us, whose power reaches to the stars, whose love connects us one to another and to all creation—we are one. We cry out with the pain of this broken world. With all our capacity for love, we ask: why can't we wrap this world in love and bring...

May God—the mind that sees our faults, the tears that sting our wounds, the laugh that soothes our aches, and the love that redeems us all—be illuminated by the light we kindle in this house of faith.

Divinity is our birthright. God nods to God from behind each of us. But let us remember, as Mr. Emerson said, "divinity is behind our failures and follies also." In the silence that follows, let us pray that we may notice and accept the Divinity of tiny things the Divine of ordinary miracles and...