“The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen…I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament” Brother Lawrence My tile backsplash holds this quote on an index card. As I chop potatoes, knead dough, or prepare leftovers for the microwave, if I think to look up from my task, the index card catches my eye. Really?…
“The word became flesh,” John writes, “and dwelt among us.” Flesh: nothing romantic or idealized here. This is the sagging, wrinkling, discolored, splotched, weak, limited, smelly stuff which we are. Flesh, bodies: wholly ordinary, corruptible, and unsatisfying. So much of what we do is an attempt to circumvent or decrease the limitations and degradation of our flesh, especially over time. Glory, we are sure, exists outside of these bodies. And that, of course, is true: When glory — “his glory,…
“The heavens declare the glory of God,” David exults, “and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” I wonder what the sky looked like when David wrote this psalm. Was it late at night? Did a full moon illuminate the city of Jerusalem around him? Or did its slender curve of light suspend delicately in the sky? Does it matter? What if it had been a cloudy, gray day? David continues: “In them he has set a tent for the sun,…