Photo by Joe Grant © 2016

…if prayer is not itself deep, powerful and pure and filled at times with the spirit of contemplation, Christian action can never reach (its) highest level. – Thomas Merton

We can only reach as wide as our roots are deep. This site is designed for faithful people, aware of the blessed-broken nature of our lives, who are seeking to live broadly and love deeply.  

They cried out to God in their trouble, who brought them out from their distress, who made the storm be still and hushed the waves of the sea.  -Psalm 107:29

 

Photo by Joe Grant © 2016

The storm-tones died away and… I beheld the countless host of forest hushed and tranquil, towering above one another like a devout audience. The setting sun filled them with amber light, and seemed to say, while they listened, “My peace I give unto you.”  – John Muir

Any Christian spirituality that does not directly address suffering (in ourselves, in our neighbors, and in nature); that fails to inspire care for vulnerable life; that neglects the challenge of reconciliation and shrinks from promoting peace; that narrows rather than broadens our understanding of kin and community; that avoids the challenge to live humbly with less; is definitely NOT worth its salt.

Spirituality is not to be learned by flight from the world, or by running away from things, or by turning solitary and going apart from the world. Rather, we must learn an inner solitude wherever or with whomsoever we may be. We must learn to penetrate things and find God there.  – Meister Eckhart

These reflections explore the challenge of trying to live the Gospel message through the practice of “engaged presence” – being holy AND just people, who are fully part of this world yet refuse to be defined by it.

These poetic musings beg the question: Can we BE STILL and STILL BE in the storms of life that surround us?

(Excerpted from the publication Still in the Storm by Joe Grant, published by JustFaith Ministries.)