Herbs, Healing and Hot Under the Collar

    My garden and spirituality seminar is only 3 days away, the irises are in full bloom, and the garden has never looked better.   It looks as though we will have beautiful weather for exploring the garden and the many ways in which God’s story is revealed in and through it.  Not surprisingly [...]

What’s Happening in the Garden?

It is a beautiful day in Seattle, the Spirituality of Gardening seminar is only a week away and much to my delight the garden is thriving.  We have already harvested about 20 lettuce and more Chinese greens than I thought we could manage to use even with all three households in the Mustard Seed House [...]

Another Prayer for Ascension & Pentecost

I cannot remember if I posted this prayer before but as it seemed to be an appropriate one for the season I did not think that you would mind if I posted it again as it affirms both the ascension of Christ and God’s new resurrection created world.  It is part of the evening prayers [...]

Prayers from Ascension Day

Tomorrow is Ascension Day, the day on which we remember Jesus ascension into heaven 40 days after he rose from the dead.  What I did not realize is that for many this is also a celebration of the new creation that God brought into being by the ascension of Jesus.  What beautiful imagery to carry [...]

A Prayer for Pentecost

Here is a litany adapted from the morning and evening prayers that we use at the Mustard Seed House.  I think that it is an appropriate one to use for Pentecost _____________________________________ God, the light of your Spirit has fallen upon us,  The seal of your ownership is on us, You have placed the Holy [...]

What Is A Spiritual Practice?

A couple of months ago I wrote a post on reimagining our spiritual practices.  I wrote that I feel we really limit our understanding of God and faith when we restrict our spiritual practices to prayer and scripture study.  I also said that for me a spiritual practice is any routine I perform on a [...]

Pentecost is Coming

May 31st is Pentecost Sunday but for a number of reasons I have been thinking a lot about Pentecost this last week First because Saturday is Pentecost Seattle, a gathering of leaders from  Mainline, Evangelical, Emergent, Catholic groups co creating an event around the theme of what Faith and Justice looks like in Seattle.  We [...]

Join Us for Read the Other Month.

The month of May is Read the Other month at Mustard Seed Associates as part of our Alternative Calendar celebration and we are encouraging people to consider reading literature that they would not usually look at.  If you never read fiction this is the time to dip into it, or poetry or maybe you want [...]

God of the Impossible

A couple of days ago I was sitting watching the humming birds at our backyard feeder.  They are the most amazing creatures whose very nature defies our understanding of the laws we think govern all of life.  I am constantly in awe of their remarkable lives whose very existence reminds us that our God is [...]

What Shapes Your Spirituality?

      Last week I wrote a post on New Realities Shaping Spirituality in the 21st Century.  Since then I have been thinking a lot about the forces that shape spirituality for all of us in this global village in which we live.  These thoughts have been spurred on by the fact that Pentecost [...]