I vaguely remember the first Earth Day in 1970. (I was only 9.) Like many things pre-internet, it took a while for Earth Day to enter the midwestern consciousness. However, four years later my junior high school newspaper was publishing a special Earth Day edition. My assignment? To write a book review of Rachel Carson’s…
I’ve been slowly reading a lovely book called Lectio Divina—The Sacred Art: Transforming Words & Images into Heart-Centered Prayer by Christine Valters Paintner. Lectio divina, which means divine reading, involves experiencing sacred text and then listening with the heart for a word or phrase that calls out to you. It is a process that Valters…
There is a story of four friends who met in school where they studied meditation. One day, they made a pact to observe absolute silence for seven days. On the first day all were silent. Their meditation had begun auspiciously, but when night came and the oil lamps were growing dim one of the pupils…
Losses and the Coronavirus, and Grieving: The ways in which our lives have changed and are changing in reaction to the coronavirus involve many losses and the normal, healthy response of grieving. The sense of certainty and predictability that helps us feel safe and secure has, in so many ways, dissolved into the experience of…
Dreams grow holy put in action, Work grows fair through starry dreaming; But where each flows on unmingling, Both are fruitless and in vain. May the stars within this gleaming, Cause my dreams to be unchained. —Caitlin Matthews, Celtic Devotional The daily reading goes on to say: “We live in a world where the divorce…
Across the country, caring people of every faith tradition are coming together to respond to the climate crisis. As we approach the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, April 22, we are grateful for Prairiewoods’ partnerships with many different faith traditions. In collaboration with Interfaith Power & Light, we invite everyone to a…
Earth and its solar system are nearly 14 billion years old, and rocks are one of Earth’s oldest residents. Rocks are natural formations made up of one or more minerals—the same minerals that formed Earth, the stars, even us! Over millions of years, these minerals bonded together because of heat and pressure. They were shaped…
In the neighborhood where I grew up, there were so many lilac bushes you could get lost in them. Hollyhocks grew wild along the bases of tall limestone walls and bluffs. There was a secret patch of lilies-of-the-valley hidden between my grandfather’s box hedges and the neighbors’ garage. Moss roses grew out of the wall…
Sister Joann Gehling, beloved friend (and one of the Prairiewoods foundresses), once told me joyously that “singing is twice praying.” I love this notion and have thought about it many times since Joann shared this with me, a phrase she learned from another FSPA sister who was her choir director. So many beautiful prayers and…
“Breathe deeply, until sweet air extinguishes the burn of fear in your lungs and every breath is a beautiful refusal to become anything less than infinite.” —D. Antoinette Foy Lovely and evocative words, but if the advice to breathe isn’t working for you, I completely get it. If you’re like me and being told…