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.
Turning Tables
In the final part of the series on Revelation, Paul Anderson highlights the apocalyptic vision of God’s final victory — casting down earthly empires that position themselves against the kingdom of God, eliminating corruption, and restoring shalom to his creation.
The Kingdoms of This World in Light of the Kingdom of God
Richard Foster shares “theological convictions that surround civic responsibility” in this newsletter from the Renovaré archives.
“For the life of the city is a social life”
An excerpt from Augustine’s magnum opus, The City of God, explains the connection between faith and righteous living, and between righteous living and peaceful, good action toward God and neighbor.