On Sabbath, sickness, and other truths we can’t ignore
What’s 1 new thing you’ve learned about God in the past year?
I’m delighted to share that my column for Catholic News Service will now be continuing with OSV News. Here’s the latest, which may strike a chord if you and your family have been swapping viruses since September: Praying to God of the sick when you’re sick of being sick.
A thought-provoking reflection on the forgotten figures in the crèche, especially fitting if you haven’t yet put your decorations away: The Tail End of Christmas.
I collect hopeful New Year’s poems like a kid cruising the neighborhood for full-sized candy bars on Halloween. Here are the latest treats I’ve found:
Burning the Old Year by Naomi Shiab Nye
Everything Holds Together by Malcolm Guite
An Overcast Morning by James Crews
We started the year at Mothering Spirit with essays that are still circling through my prayers. Anna Bonnema offers a theological reflection on empty-nesting as her children headed off to college. Justina Kopp tells a powerful story of the racism she experienced during pregnancy and birth with her quadruplets. Clarissa Moll shares how her husband’s unexpected death turned her into a mama bear—and how it changed her image of God, too.
Two podcasts I loved this week:
Universal Voices: A Heart For Not Going At It Alone with Alissa Molina and Tina Guyden about community, vulnerability, and ministry—just so much wisdom.
The Ezra Klein Show—Sabbath and the Art of Rest. An unlikely source of theological reflection perhaps, but I loved his conversation with Judith Shulevitz.
A question for you
Following the Holy Labor reader survey (thanks again for your input!) I’d love to cultivate more conversation and community in this space. So I’ll put a question on the table during these weeks when I try to set a feast for your reading/listening pleasure from others’ holy labors.
Here’s what I’d love to hear today: What’s 1 new thing you learned about God in the past year—your own “epiphany,” big or small?
(I know there’s nothing new about God under the sun, but our awareness is always growing. So that’s what spurs my posing this question here on Mothering Spirit as an Epiphany practice and here for you.)
My answer will be in the comments. Can’t wait to read yours.
The past year I learned how the Holy Spirit is really always present. I think I used to imagine the Spirit more like a bird (thank you, centuries of art history) that would alight briefly, then take off again. Leaving us to sit around and stare at the sky, hoping for a return. But since I took the leap to start Mothering Spirit, I have come into this deeper awareness of the Spirit all around us, all the time. More like air, which we notice when there’s a great wind or a gentle breeze, but is always there. Just this week I heard stories of God at work in such big and small ways in people’s lives, I have to laugh at how often I must have missed the Spirit in the details before, because I was looking for a dramatic entrance and missed the very air we breathe.
I've learned that God cares about my pain. I tend to be better at intercessory prayer than most other kinds, and at one point when I was praying for healing for my daughter I was crying out, "She's in PAIN! Do something! Don't you care?" And the response on my heart almost immediately was, "I care about your pain too." This sort of response to prayer (usually of the anguished variety) has happened only a handful of times in my life, but this one has haunted my prayer ever since. It has changed my prayer too, for sure.