Grief as a Spiritual Practice

This mornings post for the What is a Spiritual Practice Series is by Bowie Snodgrass program director at Faith House Manhattan
Grief as a Spiritual Practice
I was spiritually touched by the televised farewell to Michael Jackson.  I think it was good for the country to have a collective day of grief for one so beloved by [...]

Feeling Close to God in the Graveyard

Just after I posted my last blog post I came across this very moving article by Christopher Heuertz, director of Word Made Flesh.  Visiting the graveyard is obviously a spiritual practice that has a great deal of significance and provides a deep encounter with God for Chris.
One of the places where I often feel closest [...]

The Death of Idols

Yesterday two well known Hollywood celebrities died.  In the morning we heard about the death of Farrah Fawcett most famous for her role in the original Charlie’s Angels series.  She died at 62 after a long struggle with cancer.  Then in the afternoon many were shocked by the sudden death of Michael Jackson touted around [...]

Death Will Be Swallowed Up in Victory

The fears are mounting, the panic is spreading and even though there have still not been any deaths outside Mexico from Swine flu people around the world are starting to withdraw into their private worlds to take cover.  I can understand that from non believers but why do Christians react in exactly the same way? [...]

Lots to Think About

This last week has had me on a roller coaster of emotion – of celebration and heartache.

We began the week with a beautiful celebration for Catie Rosario Kilmer who started home schooling this week. All of us at the Mustard Seed House are looking forward to helping her parents with her instruction in everything [...]

God will not leave us comfortless

I thought that I would need to wait until after our retreat time to feel spiritually revived but this weekend I learned an important lesson (one that you would think I should have learnt a long time ago.) All that it took for me to feel spiritually renewed was a good talk to Tom [...]

Done or Done In?

It is 10 days since I last wrote anything on this blog and I am not sure that I know where the days have gone. ATo be honest I had really thought it was longer as I have been so busy these last couple of weeks that I have no memory of writing my [...]

Does God Cause Evil?

Over the last couple of days we have been devastated yet again by the horrors of violence as we heard about the shooting at Virginia Tech University. The rhythm of violent death is one that cuts across all our lives like a bolt of lightning. The shockwaves reverberate through our society raising important [...]

Living and Dying Well

Yesterday was not a good day for me.  In the morning one of our dogs got tangled up in my computer cord and managed to drag my computer across the table into my coffee cup spilling coffee all over my computer.  For most of the day it was unusable.  Miraculously (or so it seemed) around [...]

The Rhythm of Aging

Last Saturday I conducted a Rhythms of Grace retreat for my church. It was a wonderful day spent with godly women at a beautiful retreat center near Seattle. My most impacting impressions came from a discussion that developed around the transformative power of pain. Pain and death bring about changes in our [...]