THE ROOT OF JOY IS GRATEFULNESS

“The root of joy is gratefulness,” writes Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast, “It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.” I’ve always found this a helpful way to understand how gratitude and thankfulness work in our lives. More typically, we reverse this relationship. We think it’s the good things in our lives that make us thankful. Steindl-Rast, on the other hand, suggests that it’s an attitude of thankfulness ...

YOU’VE GOT TALENT!

In August, Jan and I travelled to Hanover NH to have lunch with our son Robert who was leading a workshop at Dartmouth College. I cannot resist a used bookshop; and Hanover had one: Left Bank Books. Browsing its shelves, I did not find any startling discoveries; but I did come home with an 1896 school edition of H. de Balzac’s Le Cure de Tours. On the inside cover, the owner had written his name (Frederic Edwards) ...

THE EXTRAORDINARY ORDINARINESS OF BEING A SAINT

If you are reading this today, you know that Halloween has come and gone. The jack-o-lantern that I brought to worship last Sunday is still smiling on our front step where it greeted trick-or-treaters last night. The bowl by our front door is still half-full of tempting mini chocolate bars.

Today, November 1st, is the day after Halloween and it hardly earns a footnote on the calendar. But in the church’s liturgical calendar ...