Sacred Connections Blog

Sacred Connections: Times of our Lives

This week, cicadas were the topic at our neighborhood driveway dinner. We speculated on what their arrival might mean to our outside gatherings and tried to recall earlier experiences across these seventeen-year intervals. Our host remembered wie...

Sacred Connections: Holy Week

We huddled in the chilly winds in Ault Park on Palm Sunday. Those dressed warmly enjoyed watching the clouds moving at a brisk pace. Those not so warm in body, experienced warmth in spirit, being with other hearty beloved souls, seeing familiar w...

Sacred Connections: The Wonder of Simple Things

This has been another brutal, tragic week of violence in our country, on the heels of a previous week of violence. Such violence in the continuing phases of this pandemic can feel almost numbing or paralyzing. Where is safety? How do we find our ...

Sacred Connections: "Are we there yet?"

Are you feeling a bit betwixt and between? I am. We know our experiences of the past year – whatever they have been for each of us. And we know we’re in a bit of a different place now than we’ve been at critical points along the way. We kno...

Sacred Connections: The Response

In our Sunday bulletins, we frequently refer to our reading of the Psalm as “The Response”. It is called that because it provides an opportunity for the congregation to reflect on and respond to the lesson which has just been read. All of las...

Sacred Connections: Seeking to Understand

It’s always helpful to check things out. To check our understanding in the most basic neutral ways. Being human, we may think we know, or have assumptions, and then act on them in ways that are not helpful to ourselves or others. Granting ourse...

Sacred Connections: To be continued. . .

This wonder of warmer weather paired with sunny skies has been a balm for the soul. It’s as if the pall of grey winter days may be lifting, and there is a glimpse, a reminder that spring will come eventually. Those of us who have weathered many...

Sacred Connections: Wintering

For some of us, “wintering” was what some people did to escape the cold and go to a warmer clime during our colder months. For some that is still a deeply treasured tradition, a way of life. However, for many of us, we may feel more e...

Sacred Connections: Contentment

Contentment? Really? Yes. I’ve kept seeing glimpses of contentment in my encounters with individuals and groups this week. It’s notable because I don’t know that it’s a word that has prevailed much in recent months, maybe even the last ye...

Sacred Connections: Perceptions

This past Monday I was a textbook case of allowing outer circumstances to rock my world. This was my first week of eligibility to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and I was so ready! But even though I began my calls as soon as clinics opened that mo...

Sacred Connections: Seeing Through

Earlier this week, a friend and I were lamenting winter, neither of us particularly embracing the cold temperatures and gray skies. Always looking for the bright side, my friend mentioned that she did enjoy being able to “see through” – mea...

Sacred Connections: Glimpses of Hope

Many of us entered this new year with hope, or perhaps, hoping for hope. Yet, these first weeks have felt very mixed. We’ve witnessed dramatic new lows, and thankfully, also moments of inspiration and glimpses of hope. We’ve seen the violent...

Sacred Connections: Fatigue

Fatigue has taken on a whole new depth of meaning these days. I recall how not so long ago, we might have lamented travel fatigue, especially when changing time zone s w as involved. Perhaps we’d complain of muscle fatigue a...

Sacred Connections: And then . . .

So much for the lighthearted message I’d prepared for today’s post. Perhaps it will see the light of day another time, but it felt too jarring a contrast to the days we have just witnessed. More record cases of COVID-19, more deaths, more cha...

Sacred Connections: Paths

During the Christmas Season, we may have found ourselves with more time and spaciousness to notice the world around us – the breeze on a chilly day, the warmth of sun, the birds and squirrels vying for position at the feeder, perhaps more subtl...

Sacred Connections: 'Twas the night before Christmas

Reading this classic tale on Christmas Eve has been a tradition in my family for over four decades – going back to our son, Ryan’s first Christmas in 1979. Ryan’s Dad, Ira, is Jewish, yet he was comfortable with Christmas trees ...

Sacred Connections: Baby Steps

This time of year, we anticipate the delight of a manger scene, to see images of our Savior, a babe swaddled in bands of cloth, adored and loved. Melanie Slane preached beautifully last Sunday – she reminded us of the vulnerability and mess...

Sacred Connections: This Advent

Our liturgical season of Advent is a time of invitation to prepare, wait, and hope. And this surely feels reflective of this season we're experiencing in our daily lives. Many of us may be somewhat comfortable with the “prepare” side of the ...

Sacred Connections: God's Grace

For many of us, Thanksgiving looked very different this year, and we may be anticipating that Christmas will as well. The usual houseful of people jammed around a dining table may have been reduced to a few folks who live in the same bubble or sh...

Sacred Connections: Make Good Choices

For the last several days I’ve kept remembering a conversation at one of our round tables during Adult Forum in the Great Hall which now seems as if it must have been eons ago. A young couple at the table were sharing how their grade-school...

Sacred Connections: Poetry

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase each other, doesn't make any sense....

Sacred Connections: I Am Not a Robot

"I am not a robot". I felt quite confident in that, but I kept failing the test. Earlier this week I was trying to complete my on-line registration for our virtual Diocesan Convention coming up this weekend. I had filled in all of the required fi...

Sacred Connections: Time

Many of us are experiencing significant intensity in these waning days of October. Concerns regarding the increasing incidence of Covid-19 are intensifying as we hear of more people infected, exposed, or in quarantine. For many of us, if we&rsquo...

Sacred Connections: Providence

Many years ago, several of us gathered at times in a circle of women in one of our living rooms. We would meet to share our spiritual journeys, talk about what was calling to us now and the gifts and challenges we were encountering along the way...

Sacred Connections: Listening

During this week's Zoom gathering of Church of the Redeemer’s knitting ministry, I witnessed again the beauty of our being present to each other, our listening to our own voices and the voices of those we hold dear. Knitting, crocheting and nee...

Sacred Connections: Community

My birthday was this week, and whenever anyone has asked me what I did to celebrate, I have immediately responded, “I voted!” In other times, other circumstances, I can’t imagine this response, but we are in these times, these c...

Sacred Connections: We All Need a Hug

A few weeks ago, after a small outdoor Church of the Redeemer gathering where we had been physically distanced and wearing masks, an individual came up to me and asked, “Could I have a hug?” I responded, “I’m so...

Sacred Connections: When We're Struggling

My guess is that life may continue to be a mix for many of us right now. A mix of ease and unease, a mix of comfort and discomfort. A mix of hope and concern. And on. And on. Some of us are still experiencing more solitude than we might ever want...

Sacred Connections: Encounters

Last week we were saddened to hear of the death of a beloved member of our church family, Janice Lubin. Janice was the embodiment of a “people person”. She had such love for her husband and best friend, Gary, her children and vast fam...

Sacred Connections: Truth

Late last night I saw a text message from my nine-year old granddaughter, Elia. She’s in school in Utah, where some are attending virtually, and others are physically in the classroom. Daily lessons accommodate the different locations and g...

Sacred Connections: Visible

This past week we had an outdoor gathering of folks from three Church of the Redeemer “Love Your Neighbor” neighborhood groups . We had about ten “household bubbles” in all, arriving in masks carrying chairs and beverages, then physicall...

Sacred Connections: Anxiety or Anxiousness

Even the word "anxiety" can feel a little anxiety producing for me these days. Frankly, I want to write about something else, but this topic keeps coming up in my daily encounters, and perhaps that’s also true for you. I’m not referring to th...

Sacred Connections: Walking Back

Years ago, on the Camino de Santiago, a friend I was walking with had a cardinal rule – there would be no “walking back”, we would only move forward. This may sound a bit harsh for a spiritual pilgrimage, but after only a few days, I r...

Sacred Connections: Enough

What is enough? I was talking with a friend last week who had been weathering the corona virus very well. She was in safe lodging, food available, basic needs more than being met. And yet she found herself saying that morning, “I’ve had enoug...

Sacred Connections: Perspective

Another revelation, and then I promise no more words about my recent cataract surgeries. About ten days ago I had the surgery on my other eye, and a couple of days later I was at the pet store I usually frequent to purchase food for my dog, Sweet...

Sacred Connections: Transitions

Many of us do not look forward to change or transitions. We may take comfort in the familiar and have some concern about what might be new or different. I like to think of myself as flexible, ready to try new things, and t...

Sacred Connections: Seeing

Sometimes when it feels as if our lives are a bit under a cloud, the world can actually appear almost gray. I recall many years ago after the sudden death of a loved one, it was as if color had gone out of the world, everything had a pallor, a li...

Sacred Connections: Uncertainty

I think many of us may be wrestling with uncertainty these days and longing for some certainty of our choosing. Many may recall the words of Benjamin Franklin, “… nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” That’s probably ...

Sacred Connections: We Need Each Other

As my nine-year-old granddaughter, Elia, and I were visiting on FaceTime earlier this week, I heard myself actually saying aloud, “If only SweetP (my dachshund/lab mix dog) could drive.” Was it really the grandma and not the grandchild who sa...

Sacred Connections: Water

The other night I noticed I had missed a call a few minutes earlier from my son in Utah, so I quickly tried to call him back. When he answered I could hear the distinct sound of water nearby. I asked if I were catching him at a bad time, and he s...

Sacred Connections: Language

Sometimes we don't know the language we’re looking for until it catches us by surprise. I was speaking with a family member last night, and she was lamenting the language of text messages. It is not a familiar language to her, and she was havin...

Sacred Connections: Puzzling

With all of the tumult in our world today, I find myself taking moments of refuge in jigsaw puzzles. I’ve always loved jigsaw puzzles. There’s a beauty to them, and a challenge. Some of us have strategies as to how we begin, perhaps starting ...

Sacred Connections: The Long View

Last evening, I was speaking with a dear friend who lives across the country; we were talking of the different circumstances in the states where we live, and the interior states of our own beings. The corona virus and the confrontations with inju...

Sacred Connections: "Yes!"

"Yes!" In the midst of all the significant issues swirling around us, we can find ourselves caught up with concerns seemingly beyond our ability to respond. Feelings of powerlessness only add to that weight – and if you’re like me, also the ...

Sacred Connections: How Do We Love Each Other?

How do we love each other? Jesus commands us to do this. He offers some guidance about forgiveness, about justice, about not-judging and responding to those in need. There are so many lessons to draw from, and yet sometimes the “how?” seems b...

Sacred Connections: Regrouping

Regrouping seems to be an on-going need right now. And I find myself really struck by the word itself these days. I've always thought of regrouping in a more individual sense - like, " Okay, that didn't go quite as I’d hoped, time to regroup, t...

Sacred Connections: Beyond Limitations

"Are you okay?" "How's your health?" "Do you have everything you need?" These are opening words in a letter from my stepdaughter, Grace. I found the highly stamped and postmarked envelope in my mail yesterday morning. It had been sent di...

Sacred Connections: Fragile

In a recent email exchange, Nancy Schwartz and I were trying to figure out how to best address pastoral concerns in the context of technical and logistical realities. At one point she wisely wrote me, "We are all so much more fragile right now th...

Sacred Connections: Noticing

During this time of sheltering in place we are more than ever confronted with our relationships with ourselves, with those we shelter with, with those we love and unable to be with right now, and with all those friends, neighbors, strangers we en...

Sacred Connections: The Person You Must Love

Find yourself and allow yourself to love what you find. ( The Rector's Blog: Turning Toward Love ) I loved those words from the end of Phil’s blog of a couple days ago. They were words I needed to hear. This has been and continues to b...

Sacred Connections: Sharing Easter

Sometimes a purple pansy is more than a colorful spring plant. Our Gospel on Easter Sunday included the beautiful story of Mary standing weeping outside Jesus’ tomb and how she turns and sees Jesus standing there, but she does not know him. Th...

Sacred Connections: Connected Still

We see each other in on-line worship services or in Zoom gatherings. The Church of the Redeemer staff meets regularly in Microsoft Teams. We have chance encounters at the grocery, the post office, a parking lot – faces and voices just recogniza...

Sacred Connections: Who is My Neighbor?

Some of us may be experiencing that question arising in real time as we encounter people in our neighborhoods whom we simply haven’t seen before. I know most of the dog-walkers in my neighborhood, and not so many in the non-dog households unles...

Sacred Connections: Pastoral Connections, Prayers, and Love

I welcome having this space to connect with you each week. It’s a space that we’ll see what we make of it together – a place for sharing thoughts, ideas, experiences, inspirations. Pastoral care is so much a part of how we are with each oth...

Share this page: Sacred Connections Blog