a spirited crone exploring spirituality one word at a time
God of patient presenceWho inhabits us without judgementInspire us to know we are enoughIn the name of loveyour eternal integrating force. In explanation, a collect (pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable rather than the last) is a traditional Anglican…
‘I just want to believe’, she said. The group went quiet. ‘Believe what’, I asked. ‘That the organisation will live up to its values’. There it was laid bare. The human desire for organisations to fix the world. To be…
Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland and lifelong Catholic, is religiously disruptive. She says that people are tired of ‘old men trying to beat the drum of obedience, being obedient to teaching that is long past its sell-by date and…
If I was producing a nativity play, I’d pick a young black American woman called Orpah to play Mary. You probably know her as Oprah Winfrey through her television talk shows, Oprah and Oprah Soul Sundays. Vanity Fair magazine said…
On resurrection morning, Kate glanced at the crumpled grave clothes and cautiously opened the door of her tomb. The sun shone; new life beckoned but did she have what it took? The descent to the tomb began on the Ides…
About this time every year my old friend Anxiety shows up as an obnoxious Christmas goblin. I swear it’s HER decorating shops for Christmas in early October. HER drenching my email in targeted advertising now that Google has my purchasing…
A resounding hallelujah ended the Easter singing marathon I’d promised myself. As I staggered out exhausted into the night, I was musing over what had arisen in me. No question, there was great joy through being immersed in music. Quickly…
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust makes real sense at the end of someone’s life. People get it. Somehow, without saying much, the words shout out the truth of mortality. It’s a popular phrase at funerals, especially when separated out…
This Shrove Tuesday I’m gathering up the leftovers from three years in the spiritual wilderness and seeing what I can begin to make of them. To be honest, it was a strange feeling when my role as an Anglican priest…
By 9am on Boxing Day thousands of Kiwis were touting their unwanted pressies on Trade Me or searching for bargains amongst someone else’s discards. Practical, but a tad tragic given that gift giving can be an art form full of…