Prophets and Poets
Luci Shaw believes poets, especially poets of faith, should cultivate the gift of perception and awareness in order to help illuminate invisible realities.
Silence, Temperance, and Awe
L’Engle beckons us into a deeper appreciation for God’s renewing work on our spirits — “We separate ourselves, but you rebind/ In Dayspring all our fragments; body, mind...”
Lent Is Good for Us
“In a world that celebrates indulging our whims whenever we want, to practice the traditions of Lent is countercultural,” writes Tsh Oxenreider in this excerpt from Bitter and Sweet: A Journey into Easter.
Fasting: A Practical Guide
“Fasting is a way to lay down an appetite”— an appetite of the body, mind, or spirit. Adele Calhoun offers practical advice on the discipline of fasting as a way to surrender our desires to God for his reordering.
The Death and the Dance
Kai Nilsen explains that Lenten practice is on the rise in a variety of denominations that are “awakening to the beauty of ritual and the recurring rhythms of the church that embed the life of God deeply within our souls.”
A Poem: On the Works of Providence
A poem on the creativity, goodness, and mercy of God, penned with transcendent grace by the enslaved young poet, Phillis Wheatley.
Facing Death, Finding Hope
“Instead of becoming a source of despair, our sin becomes the arena of God’s glory,” writes Esau McCaulley in this reflection on the traditional Ash Wednesday collect.
Growing Your Library of Wisdom
Renovaré Board and Ministry Team member, Tina Dyer, writes that reading from a wider variety of Christian voices deepened her spiritual formation and affirmed her sense of inclusion in God’s family.
Desert, Cell, and Tomb
“Live as though buried in a tomb…” These wisdom sayings from the Desert Fathers and Mothers encourage us to embrace little and big deaths to self that God uses to renew our spirits.
I Have Given the Keys of My House to Love
In this excerpt from Devotional Classics, Catherine writes of a transcendent unity with God even in the midst of very human distractions.