Jesus the Gardener

In the Gospel of John’s account of the resurrection, Mary Magdalene mistakes the risen Jesus for the gardener. But that doesn’t really feel like a mistake at all. A gardener, much like Jesus, tends to and coaxes forth new life. A plant, much like the resurrection, springs from a seed that is planted deep in […]

Easter Dawn

Easter dawns –  A new day A new promise A new hope

Looking in Hope

I created the piece “Looking in Hope” for a friend who asked for a prayer painting to hang on her child’s bedroom wall. I have often thought of Psalm 91 as having two voices: one that is unsure and overwhelmed and one that answers from deep experience in walking hardship with the Lord’s help. Throughout […]

The Heroine’s Journey, Part Eight: Heroine Heals the Mother/Daughter Split

This devotional is the eighth installment in what will be a series of ten exploring the kinship between the Heroine’s Journey as established by Maureen Murdock, my lived experience of ministry as a female clergy person, and a few familiar fictional characters. Each devotional ends with a blessing for the Heroine at that stage of […]

Breath of God

As I exhale deeply with the knowledge that Holy Week is upon us there is a hymn that has been rattling in my mind: Breathe on me breath of God, fill me with life anew, that I may love what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do. Breathe on me breath of God, […]

Romance as a Post-Pandemic Spiritual Practice

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.- -Proverbs 13:12 While listening to the pilot episode of the podcast “Hot and Bothered,” I was surprised to learn that romance is the best selling and most profitable of all literary fiction genres, and by large margins. Even given its […]

Proctor Conference 2023: A Family Affair

We knew we were in for a ride when the Reverend Neichelle R. Guidry, PhD, Dean of Chapel and Director of the WISDOM Center at Spelman College, concluded the reading of Judges 11 by naming it “God’s complicated and terroristic word for God’s complicated trying to get free people of God. Thanks be to God.” […]

The Heroine’s Journey, Part Seven: Heroine Urgently Yearns to Reconnect with the Feminine

This post is the seventh in what will be a series of ten exploring the kinship between the Heroine’s Journey as established by Maureen Murdock, my lived experience of ministry as a female clergy person, and a few familiar fictional characters. Each devotional will end with a blessing for the Heroine at each stage of […]

Ashes to Ashes

Ashes to ashes Dust to dust – Homes destroyed By earthquakes Now covered in dust.

What Is Love?: A Review of All About Love by bell hooks

Author and cultural critic bell hooks has recently made the news because she has been listed as one of the authors whose work Governor DeSantis cites as problematic for students. Her writing has challenged and engaged students in teachers to use their voice to stand up and to learn who they are.