Life. Love. Liturgy.
  • Gathering place
  • Thealogical Lady: A Blog
  • Thean Psalter
    • Thea House Church
  • About
    • Books
  • Contact

Thean Psalter

12/14/2018

0 Comments

 
It's gotten a bit dusty around here, so allow me to fling open the shutters and warm the blog with a happy announcement: Thean Psalter, the fruit of many years of devoted prayer and a yearning desire for faith that rings with honesty and joy, has just been published by Thea Press. The newly published version includes many updates to the proto-Psalter I had made available in 2016. I invite you to take a taste for yourself with a psalm that speaks to the journey that brought this prayerbook to fruition:
Psalm 40
 
I waited for you, O Thea;
  suddenly I felt you bend close to me, listening.
 
You lifted me out of my pit, out of the mire and clay;
   you set me upon a high cliff
   and made my movements become sure once more.
 
A new song left my mouth then,
   a song of unfettered joy.
 
Oh, that I might tell of your wisdom’s way!
   but it is beyond my power to describe,
   for it is different for each creature, every one of us.
 
As for me, I have learned that it is enough to say,
   “Behold, I come.”
 
In your book it is written concerning me:
   ‘I love to do your will, O Thea;
   your wisdom is deep in my heart.’”
Picture
0 Comments

Psalm 1

4/22/2018

0 Comments

 
Psalm 1 of the Thean Psalter
 
Happy are they whose delight is in the wisdom of Thea,
   who meditate on her wisdom day and night.
 
They are like trees planted by streams of water,
   bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither.
 
For Thea embraces all who seek her,
   and touches them with her love.
0 Comments

Liturgical Renewal

7/9/2017

2 Comments

 
It's been 2.5 years since I gave birth to my Thean ministry, and in that time I've been imagining into life a liturgy that is uniquely Thean but which also honors the many religious traditions in which I have learned and grown. Today, the shape of this liturgy reached maturity.

One of my difficulties with the liturgical format I grew up with is that it constricted the agency of the majority of the participants. When during college I came across liturgy that honored the agency of all gathered while maintaining a coherent, holistic narrative ritual, my vision of what religion could be and the shape of my own faith changed. I went on to study liturgy for that reason, at both the Master's and Ph.D. levels. After moving from Cleveland, however, liturgical and religious agency was hard to come by in the same way. I recognized along the way that I was called to priesthood (which ultimately required me to turn from my religious upbringing, a tradition that claimed women could not legitimately be priests/ministers), but even after that departure (or perhaps because of it), my vision of priesthood wasn't the sort that would authorize me to make or enforce decisions on behalf of a community or to otherwise wrangle agency from others. Theanism, which was in its birthing my own act of radical religious agency, allowed for authority created to dwell not at the top of a hierarchy, but at the depths of diverse community.

In its new maturity, Thean liturgy creates intentional space for the creative agency of each one who takes part. It is not merely the fruit of my imagining as a Thean priestess. When it comes time for what would normally be the sermon/homily/drash, each participant is given sacred time and space to pursue the creative work of her deepest yearning. In her creative agency enacted, she becomes the great revelation of Thea. 

There is time in this liturgy for what marks, to me, what is both familiar and holy--the lighting of candles, the breaking of bread, the sharing of the cup, the sounding of bells, the anointing with oil--but now the climax of Thean liturgy is the creative act that finds its origins in the deepest desires of each person. It is during this time that Thea feels most alive, in us, in myself, in one another. It is sacred communion, the night of bliss, the rosy-fingered dawn of awakening. 

And as I watch my daughters continue their creative work, now hours after our new liturgy has concluded, I perceive the nod within myself that this liturgy is the holy, whole-making ritualizing I've been chasing since I left my liturgical home in Cleveland. This is the liturgy that reflects the religious agency I learned long ago from a community that lived that agency, and which was eventually excommunicated by the local hierarch for exercising that agency.

May my daughters and I ever practice and hold space for that agency in one another, and in practicing this learn to hold space for that agency in others.
2 Comments

Stepping beyond the bounds of comfort

7/1/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Tonight I hosted Thean Evening Prayer at Pathways of Grace as I do every first Saturday of the month, and tonight two dear women in my life took part in it for the first time.

As I settled into the presence of each woman gathered there, various occasions of stepping outside my comfort zone surfaced in my memory. When I first arrived in Phoenix nearly four years ago, I knew almost no one, and I knew that if I wanted to get to know new people, I'd have to be in charge of making those connections happen--those relationships wouldn't manifest without my initiative. So I did research, I stepped out, and I introduced myself to people I'd never met.

To be vulnerable in a new setting has long been hard for me. Experiencing that vulnerability was rarely worth it when I was younger, but these days I do it despite sometimes intense discomfort, because what I seek lies on the other side of that discomfort: trust, new insight, and connection.

Each new encounter, each new experience, is an opportunity for synchronicity, an opportunity to meet myself in a new way, to come face to face with the deepest yearnings of my heart. Even when I hit an apparent wall, encountering someone or something that repels me, I can see myself in that as well--my shadow side, the side that is hard to accept, the side that is easier to brush under a rug and be done with.

As I sat in this beautiful, open-hearted gathering of women this evening, I sensed the risk involved for each person there, including myself. I hold this space for others that they may be given life from it, but some part of me whispers in my ear, "If no one shows, you've failed." And that is the struggle so many leaders of faith communities face--the idea that numbers determine success in ministry. In reality, "success" is ancillary. What is central is presence--in my case, a willingness to be present to and with other women, whether or not they seek or accept that offering. 

Tonight I found myself grateful once again that my livelihood is not determined by the "success" of my ministry--that my dayjob affords me the opportunity to pursue my ministry without requiring anything from those to whom I minister. As a woman inclined toward faith and spirituality, I have often felt pressure to offer something to the communities in which I have been spiritually fed, which has more than once left me depleted. What a gift to be able to offer ministry to others in which I require absolutely nothing back. And, by my not needing anything from those to whom I minister, perhaps those who take part are able to focus inward (on what they seek) instead of outward (on what others think or need), and in doing so are able to discover that what they seek dwells within them, and also dwells within each person gathered.

For who is Thea but the fire inside you and me? Who is Thea but our very breath, the light in our eyes, the dance in out feet, the poetry of our hearts? Who is Thea but the community that binds us, the beauty that delights us, the music that sustains us, and the love that heals us?

Who is she indeed, the one to whom we pray, if not the one we behold in the mirror, and the many we behold in the world?

I am grateful for the women who show up for this gathering, those who show up only once and those who show up almost every month and those who are there now and again. I am grateful for the unfettered gift of their presence to me, for in it they are living icons of Thea. They remind me of who I really am and also of how much love and thoughtfulness and wisdom the Creation is capable of. In their vulnerability and openness, I encounter Thea. In my leadership and ministry, I encounter Thea. In our journeying together, I encounter Thea. And in all of that, my heart is made full, ready to face the shadow side, to pull up the corner of the rug lovingly and to deal bit by bit with all I and the world have stowed there--because if a dance is going to take place, that rug needs to be rolled all the way up!

We shall each get to where we are going, I believe, one wobbly, risky, uncertain step at a time, until we've mastered Thea's wild, loving dance. And what a gathering that will be!

0 Comments

How does it feel?

6/10/2017

0 Comments

 
I shared the ordo of my Strawberry Moon Thean Eucharist at a friend's request, and he asked me afterward how it felt during and after that liturgy.

For a bit of background, allow me to say that my Thean Eucharist has evolved a great deal over the last two and a half years, so much so that we stopped doing Eucharist for a while because my thealogy had changed so much from its Christian roots.

But this was the response I offered my friend, and I believe it sums up what I value most about Theanism:
Our only light was what remained outside (which wasn't much) and the lone candle that we lit. The lighting of the candle hushed them. Nearly everything I did from that point forward brought forth a torrent of questions, mostly from A. M couldn't participate as well as A could with the parts involving reading. Both of those things left me with a little frustration. That being said, I felt this extraordinary calm and joy as we moved through the liturgy. It was so familiar and yet so fresh. It felt a bit like being at a wedding, or a funeral, or a baptism--it was rich with meaning and charged with the shaping of identity. It felt important and weighty, and I felt alive and at home right where I was, doing what I was doing, sharing and helping shape the story of me and my girls with them. It was as poignant as any liturgy at my old parish back home, and even more poignant than Thean Evening Prayer has been. Perhaps that was the case because my daughters were at the center of it and I could see them, or at least A, making connections and sorting out what it means to be of Thea and to regard all the rest of the world, including those we find difficult to love, as part of Thea. 

Making connections between the narrative one hears and one's role in it, and to tell a narrative that empowers a person to shine in ways she never realized she could, is what it's all about for me. To be able to do this with others--particularly my own daughters--to observe them making those connections, and to watch them practice their unique power by being agents in the liturgy we share, is about as near to ecstasy as I've come.

The practice of engaging in liturgy with my girls feels like one of the most important tasks I could ever undertake, because this liturgy as I've shaped it encompasses what I value (and want to pass on to them) most. I want them to break bread with others. I want them to pray, whether that prayer centers them or gives them something to argue with, or both. I want them to be confident storytellers, and I want them to know they have the right to shape the stories they tell. I want them to know the extraordinary relationship between light and shadow without glorifying one over the other. I want them to know that they are, as much as any other part or person of the world, of Thea, of the stars, of the glory of this beautiful universe.

I loved it. ♥
0 Comments

When light and shadow unite

5/6/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
This evening I arrived early at Pathways of Grace to set up for Thean Evening Prayer, and I found a complimentary copy of Kissed by God - Holy Women Create! by Shirley Cunningham waiting for me. I flipped through it, sipping images and sampling stories of biblical and spiritual female leaders from the Jewish and Christian worlds. A short piece of mine was included at the very end of the book about the woman at the well who encountered the Christ. My breath caught as I read it.

I wait, preparing to make my hasty retreat, wondering if my bucket can help me fend him off if he tries to attack me. He doesn’t move. He continues to look at my face, as if I am the living well and he is refreshing his parched lips and mouth with the story of my life. He takes time, setting aside his ego to make space for my story—and then he tells it to me as he has perceived it.
This--the experience of having another take the time to absorb my story with openhearted love and non-judgment--this is the moment when light and shadow unite. And this is the moment of ecstasy, of knowing that I am beloved, exactly as I am.

I considered this as I led prayer this evening. When I was Christian, in recognizing that I was the beloved, I understood myself as being in an ongoing process of becoming united to the source of my longing and fulfillment, to the Holy One. 

As a Thean, I reocognize that I have always been united to the Holy One--not because of baptism, not because of belief, but because I am of her. What a strange and surprising thing it is, to spend one's life seeking what one yearns for, only to discover that what one yearns for has been within oneself all along.

It took thirty-three years for me to realize that my pining was not for the one just beyond my reach, who complemented me but was decidedly not me. My pining turned out to be for the one I beheld in the mirror, the one whose hands and feet and eyes and voice were the instruments of my muse, my author, myself. I am united to Thea, not because I was ever separate from her and then did what was required to become one with her, but because I am her handiwork, and my flesh is her flesh.

Tonight I prayed the psalms and was reminded that Thea's body is nothing more or less than creation. I am the one I seek, and the one I seek is likewise in every other creature I will ever meet--in my beloved husband, in my darling children, in my despised enemy, in the cascading waterfall, in the unmoved mountain, in the cocooned caterpillar. To recognize Thea in myself is to recognize her in all the world, and that is reason for pause. If I trust that my light and shadow are beloved, then it follows that the light and shadow of all beings, animate and inanimate, are also beloved. 

What a challenge that is to accept. And what a wonder. It's so easy in daily life to give in to the temptation to dismiss others--and yet those others are made of the same sacred starstuff I am. 

And so I wondered, long after I was left alone at Pathways of Grace this evening, what it would take to love others in the way I've learned to love myself, my beautiful, broken, vivacious, imperfect, holy self. And I wondered if perhaps I'm still clinging to the idea of a holy other whose job it is to be available to the one whose yearning runs deep, when all I need to do is look in the mirror to see where love begins and ends.
0 Comments

Meeting Thea in Death

4/27/2017

0 Comments

 
My daughters faced a great and difficult milestone today: they faced the death of their first pet.

Technically, she was my oldest daughter's first pet. She was a betta (a trans-betta, if you wish; although she was among the male bettas at the pet store, my daughter quickly informed us that her new fish had told her she was a girl, and her name was Princess Amanda). She was gorgeous, too, all shimmer and irridescence in her royal blues, green, and violets. She was also spunky, zooming around her new fish bowl, which was, among other things, a one-eyed pink monster with bat wings and fangs.

My older daughter was vigilant in feeding and caring for Princess Amanda, especially after we warned her not to over-feed her. When our younger daughter, attempting to be helpful late last week, fed Princess Amanda a handful of betta food pellets, my hubby ended up scooping out over a dozen of them, and he and I both knew immediately that Princess Amanda might not make it.

It took several days, and we wondered at moments if maybe she would pull through. But she stopped eating, and only moved around to break the surface now and then for a bubble of air.

When we got home today, I found her unmoving at the bottom of her fish bowl. She was lying sideways. That's the moment I knew. I told my hubby, but neither of us was ready to tell our daughtrs. I waited till he had departed for an evening engagement. I fed them mac and cheese, and I waited. When they were done eating, I told them Princess Amanda had died, looking directly at my eldest as I said it. Shock, then grief, clouded her face. She got up to look at her fish. She had to see for herself; how could she take my word for it?

The next few minutes were minutes filled with tears and sadness and anguish, for both my daughters. I walked with them to the couch, and I held them close to me as they sobbed. I felt their grief and held it close, sharing their bitter cup.

Then I invited them to honor Princess Amanda by burying her in the earth. We moved her from her fish bowl to a smaller bowl, one that my oldest daughter would be able to carry with ease. We dug a shallow hole in the earth on the perimeter of our back deck. My oldest carried Princess Amanda; my youngest carried seeds that she and her sister had chosen. I carried fertile soil. Anastasia poured Princess Amanda and the water that surrounded her onto the earth she had chosen. Then she and her sister poured soil over her, telling her as they offered the soil what they loved about her. Then my girls scattered tiny carrot and tomato seeds over her, and I added a tiny layer of soil over the seeds to protect them with dark, nourishing moisture. And then my oldest daughter placed one of her prized rocks on top of the burial mound we had created. As all this took place, we talked about the circle of life, of being born, of dying, and of new life emerging from death. We talked about Princess Amanda's life, and how her body would become part of the nourishing soil that would help our seeds grow. 

After the burial had concluded and some minutes had passed, I offered my Thea necklace to my oldest to wear as a comfort. She offered it to her sister a few minutes later, who's wearing it now for that same purpose. 

Thea is the one who envelops my family with understanding and tears in this shadowy quiet. She is the one who is mourned as my daughters and I mourn the one we love, and she's the one we anticipate as new life emerges from what we have planted. 

Blessed be the one we loved, we love, and we will forever love. ♥
0 Comments

Good vs. Bad

2/7/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
I took part in my first local Christian Sunday liturgy for the first time in two years this past Sunday. I walked in late to the early liturgy at the little church on my way to downtown Phoenix, the homily already underway.

​The preacher was in the middle of speaking about the difference between good liturgy and bad liturgy. Bad liturgy, he said, was the sort of liturgy we do--actions and intentions all woven together--for our own ends, so that we may personally benefit from it in the ways we see fit. Good liturgy, on the other hand, is the sort of liturgy we do for God's sake, for God's ends. I saw where he was going, especially from a political standpoint, because it seems that in this country, at this moment in history, far too much is being done for self-aggrandizing, self-benefiting ends, while the ends that matter from a certain Christian perspective--clothing the naked and feeding the hungry--go unnoticed, even though these are, from this perspective, God's ends.

What I noticed as this preacher went on was the absolute divide he made between God and human beings, God's ends and human ends.  That divide is, perhaps, why Jesus, who is said to be both human and divine, is such a miracle. For me as a Thean, however, I cannot thealogically claim such a definitive divide between God and what she has made.

​As I encounter her, Thea is an author. As I encounter myself and others, we are and are becoming are her evolving masterwork. Thea is not done with her masterwork, it seems to me, and even if she were, her work would be no less part of her. She may be distinct in some sense from her work, but her work is of her, and she of it.

I say this because of my own experience just today as I picked up my first novel, Memory Stands Still, and marveled as I read it. My novel, my words, my stories, are of me. Writing this and other stories has changed and revealed me. One could claim on some level a divide between me and my art, but I would argue--and so would many around me--that my art, like my dreams, reveal the deepest parts of myself. One may talk of Thea, God, apart from her masterwork, but what would one say of her?

​One might answer that one would say nothing, and that that would be the best way to honor Thea, who is ineffable. And that would also be correct.

​The grace and beauty of Thea is that there are many ways to behold her, to perceive her, to encounter her. As a Thean, I encounter God incarnate in every person, every creature, I meet--every one, without exception. For me, Thea is revealed not as absolute other, but as author of and the very stuff of creation. Thea's masterwork is Thea herself. The radical thing about Theanism is that there is no encounter one can have that is not encounter with Thea. My ability to perceive her in the one who wounds me and wounds others may be limited, but she is present and enfleshed in the meanest and kindest of all of us, in the messy complexity of every one of us, including myself. That is what makes the radical divide between good and bad too facile; it implies that God can be here and not there, and the truth, at least of my experience, is that God is in and of all of it. We the universe are Thea figuring herself out, and singing beauty--in all its difficulty and breathtaking loveliness, into life. We who are Thea are both good and bad, and Thea's intentions, Thea's ends, are very much our own, and ours hers. What this means is that Thea doesn't always get it right--we, you and I, don't always get it right. But we, her creation, her Sacred Body, her hands and feet, are moving, one must hope, in the direction of greater understanding, beauty, and love, for that is her, our, end.

​In other words, I don't believe human ends are so very different from Thea's, despite the evils, hatred, and selfishness that run rampant in our world. What I do believe is that it's easy for every one of us to lose sight of what is most important and life-giving in our daily lives for the sake of accomplishing the goals we've chosen to set for ourselves. There is not one person in the world who has not done harm to another while attempting to do what they believe is good, right, or worthwhile. There is not one person in the world who has not engaged in what is selfish while wanting to help others or make a positive difference. Good and bad are woven together, and there is no unweaving them.

​But this is not reason for hopelessness. It is reason for relief, I believe--relief in the ability to be honest, to assess ourselves and one another frankly and with tremendous compassion, to choose to hold together rather than attempting to tear apart what cannot be divided neatly into compartments. From my Thean perspective, there is no way to achieve "pure goodness," because there is no such thing. There is, rather, a journey for each of us, a journey with many possible directions, setbacks, and ecstasies. We each have steps of our own in the cosmic dance. We each have our harmony, our solo, our part in the symphony Thea composes and performs in this very moment.

​What I would like to suggest is that perhaps, instead of pointing fingers at what or who is good or bad, that it is time to set aside our assumptions and judgments aside for a while and focus instead on what we live for: loving and drawing out the best in one another, starting with the one we see in the mirror. For we are worth our great efforts to love. We are Thea, and love is the masterwork we are, have been, and are becoming.

0 Comments

Mystagogy - Thean Evening Prayer

9/4/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Last night was a turning point for me: for the first time, I brought my ministry as a Thean priestess out of the privacy of my family's house church and into the public realm, leading Thean Evening Prayer at Pathways of Grace in Phoenix.

My vision for Thean Evening Prayer was simple: it would be an intimate gathering for those who identify as women to pray together to God in their own (female) voices using feminine images for God and imagining God in relationship to Creation through a feminine, feminist lens.

When I arrived, my dear husband helped me arrange the space the way I wanted it, and then he departed so I could pray before others arrived. At 5:00, the time when prayer was set to begin, I was the only person in the room. I continued to pray, and as I prayed, I was surprised by the awareness that I actually wasn't alone--I was in the company of thousands of generations of women, women who had come before me, who had refused to be silenced or disempowered by oppressors, women who had imagined themselves and their God the way they chose, women who had loved, created, mentored and empowered girls and women within their influence. All their efforts, all their willingness to stand up for themselves, all their willingness to make a difference when they were told to shrink and be quiet--all of that energy had culminated in this moment, this hour, in which I was able to embrace my public ministry as a spiritual leader, a Thean priestess, a woman who wouldn't settle for the oppression that would seek to rein me in.

I knew going into the night that several women who wanted to pray with me were out of town. I knew also that several women who had wanted to pray with me had something come up at the last minute. I prepared to pray with my cloud of witnesses. I waited. Then a familiar face arrived, a woman who had prayed with me at our former Episcopal parish in Tempe, a woman who was preparing to lead her own spiritual circle for women. We hugged, we talked for a few minutes, I showed her around the rooms of Pathways of Grace, and eventually we settled into our seats to pray. I sounded the singing bowl four times. We stood, and I intoned a invitatory that I had learned years ago at my Roman Catholic parish in Cleveland, the same parish that ignited my love for liturgy: Let my prayer arise like incense in your sight, the lifting of my hands a sign of trust in you, O God. She joined with me in singing, and we sang it several times, letting the words soak into the space and ourselves.

We prayed the psalms next--Psalm 141, from which the invitatory came, and then a series of other psalms. Between each psalm there was a pregnant, full silence. At one point, I held my breath in between verses to keep my voice from breaking and tears from falling. Next time--next time I will let them break and fall.

At the conclusion of the psalms, we moved to the homily. I explained that in the Christian (and particularly Benedictine) tradition, Saturday night evening prayer was a big event, because it was the vigil for Sunday, the most important day of the Christian week. Saturday evening prayer was therefore when a homily was given, at least in communities that prayed together the liturgy of the hours every day. I noted that the homily would traditionally be given by the presider in top-down fashion, the presider imparting (his) reflections as seeds to be planted in the hearts of those around (him). Then I explained that in the case of Thean Evening Prayer, the homily was open to every person present, because a key Thean belief is that every (woman) has deep wisdom to share. So we shared the homily based on phrases from the psalms that had particularly resonated with us. Our homily was a mutual conversation in which we listened to one another and sounded/heard our own voices, recognizing that Thea's voice resounded through each of us.

I don't know how much time passed--time felt as though it was suspended, but I know from the content of the conversation that it must have taken a while. When the homily had reached an end, I turned to the next portion of evening prayer: the anointing. A bottle of oil stood on the little altar before us. I removed the glass stopper and poured a small portion of it into a glass bowl, inviting my praying partner to partake of it. I spoke of olive oil as an ancient healing balm, but I also spoke of it as the stuff with which royalty, priests, and prophets were anointed. To partake of scented oil is a sign not only of healing, but of empowerment and authority, specifically the power and authority to speak and act as one deems fit and wise. I said that it was particularly poignant to anoint the parts of ourselves for which we seek wise power and authority: the eyes, the ears, the mouth, the nose, the hands, the heart. My prayer partner and I dipped our fingers in the oil and rubbed the rose and clove scents into our skin, and then prayed Psalm 45 from the Thean Psalter, which included verses like, "You, a woman, are among the wise ones; grace flows from your lips," "Your leadership shall endure, for you love goodness and reject unkindness," and "Thea anoints you with the oil of gladness."

Thus empowered, we prayed together for those all around us, and lifted up personal prayers of our own. Then we stood and prayed a modified version of the Lord's Prayer called "Our Mother," written by Miriam Therese Winter of herchurch in San Francisco. We concluded with a collect prayer and this blessing:

May Thea bless us with courage,
guide us with her unrelenting love,
and empower us to answer her sacred call. Amen.


Our time together was not over--we stood, moved to the other side of the room, and talked over a small spread of food and bubbly water I had brought to share. We talked about our experiences, our faith, our friends, our leadership, our children, and our lives. We talked and talked until suddenly it was nearly 7:00--between the two of us and the cloud of witnesses that surrounded us, we had spent the two hours for which I had reserved the space.

I feel full: full of gratitude, full of joy, full of wisdom, full of holy power. This gathering was and wasn't about me. It was about me as a woman who has been on a journey all her life to arrive at the moment of taking up her life's vocation. It was about every woman who has ever done the same or sought to do the same. It was about every young girl who is figuring out who she wants to be, and it is about countless generations of women still to come who will change and lead this world for the better, overcoming oppressions and embracing who they see in the mirror as living icons of the Holy One.

For a free e-copy of the Thean Psalter, send me a note with your e-mail address. If you'd like a print copy, you can send $10 and your name and address via PayPal to me at lifeloveliturgy at gmail dot com. If you self-identify as a woman and would like to take part in future gatherings of Thean Evening Prayer at Pathways of Grace, we meet every first Saturday of the month at 5:00, and you can RSVP on the Pathways of Grace meetup.com page.
0 Comments

Praying with the Thean Book of Psalms

8/24/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
This morning, my older daughter and I cleared our dining room table. I invited her to bring out my lidded white candle and my sparkling, pale purple quartz. "What are you doing?" she asked as I opened the lid of the candle. I said nothing, setting the lid next to the candle, placing the quartz chunk inside it, and lighting the candle with a match. I opened my Thean Psalter to the section marked "Twenty-fourth Day: Morning Prayer." I asked my daughter if she was ready, and she said yes. I proceeded to pray the appointed psalms, 116-118, in a lively, lilting voice, making eye contact with her and slowing my words at important phrases. At the end of the final psalm, I said, "Amen," and she repeated it after me. I invited her to blow out the candle, and we collapsed in giggles as she blew and blew at the flame, to no avail. Thean light is not easily extinguished, she discovered.

After I walked my older daughter to school and drove my husband to work, my younger daughter and I met with a friend of mine who's heading off for rabbinical studies this fall. She wanted a copy of the print version of the Thean Psalter. As soon as I gave it to her, she began adding thin plastic tabs to it; she also oohed and aahed over the purple cardstock title page, the color of which was her favorite. Her excitement as she explored the Psalter's words mirrored my own, and I couldn't help grinning as I watched her. She asked which of the psalms were my favorites, and I pointed out Psalm 23, which reimagines the relationship between G-d and psalmist, moving from shepherd/sheep to mutually curious, passionate lovers who are, among other things, equals.

This Psalter represents Thean thealogical thought, which is feminist and feminine, egalitarian, pacifist, and creation-centric. Patriarchal structures/images as well as themes of violence and vengeance are challenged, eliminated, or transformed.

The e-copy of this finalized Thean Psalter is available for free to all who request it. The hard copy, which is laser-printed on high quality white paper and purple cardstock and comb-bound with a black spine in clear plastic front and back covers, is available for $10USD, payable via PayPal, with free shipping anywhere in the continental United States. I plan to make hard copies of the Thean Psalter available each first Saturday of the month at Thean Evening Prayer, where all who identify as women are welcome to pray.

0 Comments

Psalm 139

7/29/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Psalm 139
 
Thea, you search me out and you know me;
   you know my sitting down and my rising up;
   you discern the pattern of my thoughts.
 
You trace my journeys and my resting-places
   and are acquainted with all my ways.
 
Indeed, there is not a word on my lips
   that you, O Thea, do not know.
 
You journey behind, before, and beside me,
   and you lay your hand upon me in blessing.
 
Where can I go then from your Ruach?
    where can I flee from your presence?
 
If I climb to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make the grave my bed, you are there also.
 
If I take the wings of the morning
   and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
 
Even there your hand will lead me
   and your hands hold me fast.
 
If I say, “Surely the darkness will cover me,
   and the light around me turn to night,”
 
Darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day;
   darkness and light to you are both alike.
 
For you yourself created my inmost parts;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
 
I will thank you because I am marvelously made;
   all your works are wonders to behold.
 
My body was not hidden from you,
   while I was being made in secret
   and woven in the depths.
 
Your eyes beheld my limbs, yet unfinished in the womb;
all of them were already written in your book;
   they were fashioned day by day,
   when as yet there was none of them.
 
How deep I find your thoughts, O Thea!
   how great is the sum of them!
 
If I were to count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
   to count them all, my life span would need to be like yours.
 
Search me, O Thea, and know my heart;
   lead me in your wisdom’s way.

0 Comments

Psalm 116

7/24/2016

0 Comments

 
Psalm 116
 
I love you, O Thea;
   hear the voice of my pleading;
   incline your ear to me,
 
For the cords of death entangle me,
   and the grip of the grave takes hold of me!
 
Hear me when I pray,
   “O Thea, save my life from destruction!”
 
I trust that you will rescue my life from death,
   my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling.
 
For gracious and kind are you;
   you are the compassionate one.
 
Even now, you give me a new chance to walk in your presence
   in the land of the living.

O Thea, I am yours;
   I am the daughter of your daughters.
 
I will fulfill my vow to walk on your path
   in the presence of all your Creatures.

While I have life, I will lift up the cup of your covenant
   and call upon you, O Thea.
0 Comments

Psalm 109: A Transformation

7/22/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
I rarely post on Thealogical Lady twice in one day, but the psalms from both morning and evening prayer today merited attention. I invite you to compare the NIV version of Psalm 109 (see below on the left) with my Thean transformation of it, which I finished just today (see below on the right).
Psalm 109

My God, whom I praise,

    do not remain silent,

for people who are wicked and deceitful
    have opened their mouths against me;
    they have spoken against me with lying tongues.

With words of hatred they surround me;
    they attack me without cause.

In return for my friendship they accuse me,
    but I am a man of prayer.

They repay me evil for good,
    and hatred for my friendship.

Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy;
    let an accuser stand at his right hand.

When he is tried, let him be found guilty,
    and may his prayers condemn him.

May his days be few;
    may another take his place of leadership.

May his children be fatherless
    and his wife a widow.

May his children be wandering beggars;
    may they be driven from their ruined homes.

May a creditor seize all he has;
    may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.

May no one extend kindness to him
    or take pity on his fatherless children.

May his descendants be cut off,
    their names blotted out from the next generation.

May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord;
    may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.

May their sins always remain before the Lord,
    that he may blot out their name from the earth.

For he never thought of doing a kindness,
    but hounded to death the poor
    and the needy and the brokenhearted.

He loved to pronounce a curse--
    may it come back on him.
He found no pleasure in blessing--
    may it be far from him.

He wore cursing as his garment;
    it entered into his body like water,
    into his bones like oil.

May it be like a cloak wrapped about him,
    like a belt tied forever around him.

May this be the Lord’s payment to my accusers,
    to those who speak evil of me.

But you, Sovereign Lord,
    help me for your name’s sake;
    out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.

For I am poor and needy,
    and my heart is wounded within me.

I fade away like an evening shadow;
    I am shaken off like a locust.

My knees give way from fasting;
    my body is thin and gaunt.

I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
    when they see me, they shake their heads.

Help me, Lord my God;
    save me according to your unfailing love.

Let them know that it is your hand,
    that you, Lord, have done it.

While they curse, may you bless;
    may those who attack me be put to shame,
    but may your servant rejoice.

May my accusers be clothed with disgrace
    and wrapped in shame as in a cloak.

With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord;
    in the great throng of worshipers I will praise him.

For he stands at the right hand of the needy,
    to save their lives from those who would condemn them.
Psalm 109

Do not fail to act, O Thea,
   while the mouth of the one who hates me is opened against me.
 
She speaks to me with a lying tongue;
   she surrounds me with hateful words
   and fights against me without a cause.
 
Despite my love, she accuses me;
   but as for me, I pray that your love will envelop her.
 
She repays evil for good,
   and hatred for my love.
 
She does not remember to show mercy,
   but persecutes the poor and needy
   and seeks to destroy the brokenhearted.
 
She loves cursing,
but let it not come upon her;
   she takes no delight in blessing,
   but let it shower upon her.
 
She wears cursing like a garment,
   let it not soak into her body like water
   or into her bones like oil;
 
Let it not be to her like the cloak which she wraps around herself,
   and like the belt that she wears continually.
 
O Thea my Goddess,
   for your tender mercy’s sake, deliver her.
 
For she is poor and needy,
   and her heart is wounded within her.
 
She has faded away like a shadow when it lengthens;
   she is shaken off like a locust.
 
Her knees are weak,
   and her flesh is wasted and gaunt.
 
She has become a reproach to all around her;
   they see and shake their heads.
 
Help her, O Thea my Goddess;
   save her for your mercy’s sake.
 
She may curse, but you will bless;
   give her cause to rejoice once more.
 
Then I will give great thanks to you with my mouth;
   in the midst of the multitude I will praise you;
 
Because you stand beside the one who is most needy,
   to save her from her own stony heart.

0 Comments

Psalm 107 and Pelagius

7/22/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
During my prayer today, I rewrote Psalm 107. This took me the better part of two hours--a considerable amount of time compared to what I've spent on other individual psalms. I think it required extra time because what I wanted it to say reminded me of a Christian heresy called Pelagianism, which basically says that we human beings have what we need within ourselves to attain/earn salvation--no extra help from God (via the Christ) necessary.

The difference between Christian and Thean thought here is twofold: first, according to Theanism, salvation is not something that human beings (or Creation at large) need--there is no doctrine of "Original Sin" in Theanism. Theanism claims that we are not now nor have we ever been nor could we ever be separate from Thea, even when we do wrong or commit evil deeds. Thea's love is stronger than any individual's or community's ability to do wrong--Thea's love, which binds all Creatures together as her Sacred Body, can never be torn apart.

Second, according to Theanism, all Creatures are Thea's Incarnation. Whereas Christianity requires God's Word to be made incarnate in a single, sinless man who is sacrificed by death on a cross for the world's salvation, Theanism says that we--all of us--are Thea. Therefore we are individually and collectively all we will ever need to fulfill our ultimate purpose, which is to love and bear witness to one another, particularly by answering the passion that stirs deepest within our hearts, no matter what obstacles lay before or around or beneath or behind us. When we experience fear, doubt, or distress, as the people in Psalm 107 do, we only need to remember who we are: Thea's Sacred Body, capable of fulfilling our destiny to love if we can just turn inward to remember that love is the stuff we're made of.


Psalm 107
 
Give thanks to Thea, for her love is a holy flame
   that burns brightly within her Creatures.
 
Some wander in the desert,
   finding no way to a city where their hearts might dwell.
 
They hunger and thirst;
   their flesh languishes.
 
Then they look within themselves for Thea’s help,
   and their divine fire melts their icy fear;
 
Thea thus puts their feet on a straight path
   to go to a city where they might dwell.
 
Some sit in darkness and deep gloom,
   bound fast in misery and iron;
 
They are humbled with difficult work;
   they stumble, and find none to help.
 
Then they look within themselves for Thea’s help,
   and their divine fire melts their icy fear;
 
Thea thus leads them out of darkness and deep gloom
   and breaks their bonds asunder.
 
Some go down to the sea in ships
   and ply their trade in deep waters;
 
Then a stormy wind rises up,
   which tosses high the waves of the sea.
 
They mount up to the skies and fall back to the depths;
   their hearts freeze because of their peril.
 
They reel and stagger like drunkards
   and are at their wits’ end.
 
Then they look within themselves for Thea’s help,
   and their divine fire melts their icy fear;
 
Thea thus stills the storm to a whisper
   and she brings them to the harbor they are bound for.
 
Thea’s love changes deserts into pools of water
   and dry land into water-springs.
 
She settles the hungry there,
   and they find a city to dwell in.
 
They sow fields, and plant vineyards,
   and bring in a fruitful harvest.
 
The wise will ponder these things,
   and consider well the holy fire of Thea that burns within.

0 Comments

Psalm 106

7/21/2016

0 Comments

 
Ten months ago today, I wrote a post detailing my frustrations with the characterization of God in Psalm 106. I rediscovered that post just now after transforming that very psalm. This is what Thea looks like to me. ♥

Psalm 106

 
We give thanks to you, O Thea,
   for your love for your Creatures is unending.
 
When we were enslaved we did not consider your marvelous works,
nor remember the abundance of your love;
   we defied you, believing not even you could help us.
 
But you set us free,
   making your power known.
 
You rebuked the sea, and it dried up,
   and you led us through the deep as through a desert.
 
You delivered us from the hand of those who hated us
   and empowered us to escape from those who would have held us captive.
 
But we soon forgot your deeds
   and did not take time to discern your wisdom for ourselves.
 
A craving seized us in the wilderness,
   and we put you to the test in the desert.
 
We envied Miriam in the camp,
   Miriam, your chosen one.
 
We forgot you, O Thea,
   you who had liberated us.
 
We grumbled in our tents
   and would not listen to your voice.
 
Then we were overtaken by the hand of our enemy
   and those who hated us ruled over us.
 
Our enemies oppressed us,
   and we were humbled under their hand.
 
Time after time you delivered us from our enslavement,
   but we forgot your love and sank into traps of our own making.
 
Nevertheless, you saw our distress
   when we voiced our lamentation.
 
You remembered your love, even when we forgot it,
   and lifted us up once more.
 
Blessed be you, O Thea, author of Creation,
   and may the blessing of your love ever be upon us!
0 Comments

Psalm 78

7/15/2016

0 Comments

 
This is a psalm that originally spoke of the stubborn hearts and repeated rebelling of God's people, despite God's goodness and generosity. In the original psalm, God grew angry and finally allowed the people to die off to see if it would make any difference with them.

I believe my rendering of this psalm speaks to a Thean worldview, one in which we as Creatures still rebel and in which God still resists that rebellion, but in which rebellion, resistance, and resolution are imagined in a very different way.


Psalm 78

 
Hear my teaching, my sisters,
   incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
 
I will open my mouth in a parable;
   I will declare the mysteries of ancient times.
 
That which we have heard and known,
and what our foremothers have told us,
   we will not hide from their children.
 
We will recount to generations to come
   the liberating deeds and loving power of Thea.
 
She established wisdom,
   which she gave us to teach our children;
 
That the generations to come might know,
and the children yet unborn;
   that they in their turn might tell it to their children;
 
So that they might discover their divine identity
   and live as icons of her in the world.
 
She worked marvels in the sight of our foremothers,
   in the land where they were once slaves.
 
She split open the sea and let them pass through;
   she made the waters stand up like walls.
 
She led them with a cloud by day,
   and all the night through with a glow of fire.
 
She split the hard rocks in the wilderness
   and gave them drink as from the great deep.
 
She brought streams out of the cliff,
   and the waters gushed out like rivers.
 
And she said to them, “This!
   This is what I want you to do for your fellow Creatures!”
 
But they strayed from the path she had given them,
   rebelling in the desert against her.
 
They tested her in their hearts,
   demanding food for their craving.
 
They railed against her and said,
   “Can you set a table in the wilderness?
 
True, she struck the rock, the waters gushed out, and the gullies overflowed;
   but are you able to give bread
   or to provide meat for her creatures?”
 
When Thea heard this,
   a fire ignited in her heart,
 
For they had no faith in Thea;
   how could they possibly have faith in themselves?
 
So she commanded the clouds above
   and opened the doors of heaven.
 
She rained down manna upon them to eat
   and gave them grain from heaven.
 
So mortals ate the bread of angels;
   she provided for them food enough.
 
She caused the east wind to blow in the heavens
   and led out the south wind by her might.
 
She rained down flesh upon them like dust
   and winged birds like the sand of the sea.
 
She let it fall in the midst of their camp
   and round about their dwellings.
 
So they are and were well filled,
   for she gave them what they craved.
 
But they did not believe in her promise,
   that her power to work miracles was also their power.
 
They remained steadfast in their stubbornness
   and had no faith in her wonderful works.
 
Then Thea woke as though from sleep,
   like a warrior refreshed with wine.
 
She set her eyes on her Creatures,
   whom she had always loved;
 
And she whispered in their hearts once more,
   that they might recognize their true calling, their deepest yearning,
   and become her miracle-working hands and feet and heart in the world.

0 Comments

In the wake of Orlando

6/17/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
As a cisgender, heterosexual, white person, I have taken the words of my LGBTQ+ friends to heart over the last week and quieted myself so that they and their community could be heard in the wake of the devastation at Pulse in Orlando, Florida.

As a minister, however, I also have a responsibility not to keep silent forever, because my silence might imply my endorsement or approval of the actions of the man who shot and killed/wounded over a hundred members of the Latinx LGBTQ community.

Let me be clear: it is not the will or desire of God (whom I call Thea) that LGBTQ people should be targets of violence. It is not Thea's will that LGBTQ people should in any way change or hide or be ashamed of their sexual identity. Individuals and communities that intentionally marginalize/persecute the LGBTQ community for their sexuality are absolutely wrong to do so, full-stop. These persecutors are the ones who need to change, not the ones they persecute.

I mourn for the precious lives lost and those that were forever changed in this mass shooting. I also mourn for the shooter, whose life was lost fighting the wrong fight. I pray for peace, solace, and love to envelop the LGBTQ community so they might heal and be strengthened to be who they are with enormous pride, and I pray for compassion, a desire for mutual understanding, and forgiveness among all of us, because we could all use much more of that. As for me, I have spent this week letting my LGBTQ friends know that I love them and I'm thinking of them, and I've also spent this week lovingly communicating with those who would promote marginalization of another group, those who follow Islam, in order to show that fundamentalist extremism does not equate or speak for religion as a whole. I've spent this week lifting up those in politics who can make a difference in keeping guns out of the wrong hands. I've done what I could, and I will continue to do what I can to ensure that a tragedy like this is forever a thing of the past. I pray that you and all of us will do the same--not just pray, but take tangible steps to prevent this kind of tragedy from ever taking place again.

I came across this psalm in my prayer today, and it seems to fit:

Psalm 79
 
O Thea, those who do evil have come among us;
   they have made Creation a pile of rubble.
 
They have shed blood like water throughout all of Creation,
   and there was no one to bury their victims.
 
Help them and us, O Thea! Change their hearts and ours;
   let your compassion be swift to meet us all and spread among us.
 
Help us, O Thea;
   deliver us and teach us your forgiveness,
   that we may taste and see the sweetness of your mercy.
 
O Thea, let the sorrowful sighing of those in chains come before you,
   and by your great might give hope to those who are condemned to die.
 
We will give you thanks forever
   and show forth your praise from age to age.

0 Comments

Thean Evening Prayer

6/11/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
I am happy to announce for my readers in the Phoenix area that I will be collaborating with Pathways of Grace to offer Thean Evening Prayer starting this autumn (Thea willing!). I'm still in the process of discerning exactly what this will look like, but I envision evening prayer after the pattern of Christian vespers (using Thean and other texts focused on the women and the Divine Feminine) followed by a potluck supper.

I will announce the firm details when I have them, hopefully within the next week. In the meantime, I ask for your prayers and invite you to share this news with anyone who may be interested.
0 Comments

Evildoers and God's Body

5/19/2016

0 Comments

 
Psalm 94 came up in my morning prayer today, and it gave me pause.

I noted these lines first:
As often as I said, "My foot has slipped,"
   your love, O Thea, upheld me.
And then I noted these:
Can a corrupt community have any part with you,
   one which frames evil into wisdom?
The difficulty I have with this psalm is that every person who prays the psalms does evil at some time or another--and yet Thea upholds them. Many people point fingers at communities that frame evil into wisdom, but those finger-pointing people do evil, too, as do their own communities. We are all broken--we are all trying.

I believe that all of Creation is Thea's--God's--Sacred Body, and yet we are mean and spiteful. We do wrong. We act cruelly--on purpose, and by carelessness. Sometimes, even often, we are good, forbearing, and virtuous, but no one is any of those things at every moment.

How can Thea get behind any of us when we are kind one moment and hypocritical the next?

And yet--Thea upholds each one of us. She loves us without condition. We are each part of her, the stuff of the stars, the evolution of billions of years of her creative, imaginative love.

This psalm reminds me of all that I have ever done wrong and all I have ever attempted to do right. It also reminds me that Thea values me--and the person I despise, just as much as the person I love--no matter what.

Her enveloping love is scandalous by the standards of human interaction. We want justice, not overwhelming, unwavering love. And yet Thea gives us more than we think we or others deserve. She's more radical than any one of us in her lovingness.

I sit here, pondering the enormity of her, of all of us who are her Sacred Body, and I am overwhelmed. She loves me, and him, and her, and you.

What if I loved like that--even a little bit? Not in order to be recognized as someone special or good, but just for the sake of loving, just like she loves us for the sake of loving?

Maybe I'd judge the evil-doing of others less readily. Maybe I'd learn greater compassion. Maybe I'd see the holy light of Thea that dwells in me in the eyes and hearts of those I find difficult to be around. Maybe I'd be tapping into the love that brought me into being and which sustains me from moment to moment. Maybe I'd be learning to recognize my own small part in the divine Self.

And maybe I'd get to taste what it is like to be the Great Love that binds us all together. ♥
0 Comments

Psalms for the morning of the fifth day

5/5/2016

0 Comments

 
I am nearly finished with the revisions of my psalter. Praying with it gives me chills, wonder, and hope. ♥

Psalm 24
 
Creation is Thea and all that is in it,
   the universe and all who dwell therein.
 
For it is she who splashes as the seas
   and is firm as earth alongside the great rivers.
 
“Who can descend the valley of Thea?
   and who can stand in her holy place?
 
“Those who have a pure heart,
   who have not pledged themselves to falsehood,
   nor sworn by what is a fraud.
 
They shall receive a blessing from Thea
   and a just reward from the Goddess whose body they are.”
 
Such is the generation of those who seek her,
   of those who seek your face, O Goddess of Creation.
 
Lift up your heads, O gates;
   lift them high, O everlasting doors;
   and the Queen of glory shall come in.
 
“Who is this Queen of glory?”
   “Thea, strong and mighty,
   Thea, mighty in battle.”
 
Lift up your heads, O gates;
lift them high, O everlasting doors;
   and the Queen of glory shall come in.
 
“Who is she, this Queen of glory?”
   “The Lady of Creation,
   she is the Queen of glory.”
 
 
Psalm 25
 
To you, O Thea, I lift up my flesh;
   my Goddess, I put my trust in you.
 
Let none who look to you be put to shame;
   let the treacherous be disappointed in their schemes.
 
Show me your ways, O Thea,
   and teach me your paths.
 
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
   for you are the Goddess, the breath of my flesh;
   in you I have trusted all day long.
 
Remember, O Thea, your compassion and love,
   for they are everlasting.
 
Remember not the wrongdoing of my youth and my transgressions;
   remember me according to your love
   and for the sake of your goodness, O Thea.
 
Gracious and upright is Thea;
   therefore she teaches her Creatures in her ways.
 
She guides the humble in doing right
   and teaches her way to the lowly.
 
All the paths of Thea are love and faithfulness;
   the Goddess shows her Creatures her ways.
 
Who are they who are in awe of Thea?
   she will teach them the way that they should choose.
 
Thea is a friend to those who are in awe of her
   and will show them her covenant.
 
My eyes are ever looking to Thea,
   for she shall pluck my feet out of the net.
 
Protect my life and deliver me;
   let me not be put to shame, for I have trusted in you.
 
Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,
   for my hope has been in you.
 
Deliver Creation, O Goddess,
   out of all her troubles.
 
 
Psalm 26
 
Give judgment for me, O Thea,
for I have lived with integrity;
   I have trusted in Thea and have not faltered.
 
Test me, O Thea, and try me;
   examine my heart and my mind.
 
For your love is before my eyes;
   I have walked faithfully with you.
 
I will wash my hands in innocence, O Thea,
   that I may go in procession round your altar,
 
Singing aloud a song of thanksgiving
   and recounting all your wonderful deeds.
 
Thea, I love the house in which you dwell
   and the place where your glory abides.
 
My foot stands on level ground;
   in the full assembly I will bless Thea.
0 Comments
<<Previous
    Picture

    Rev. M. Kate Allen

    Thean. House church priest. Published author. Mother and wife. Vocal feminist. Faith-filled dissenter in the face of the status quo.

    I address G-d as Thea more often than not.


    Welcome!

    Archives

    January 2020
    December 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

    Categories

    All
    1 John 4:16
    2015
    2018
    26 June 2015
    2 April 2014
    4peregrini
    750words.com
    Abide
    Absence
    Abstinence
    Abuse
    Accountability
    Acedia
    Aching
    Addiction
    Adoption
    Adults
    Advent
    Advent Journeying
    Adventure
    Affectionate
    Affirmation
    African American
    Age
    Agency
    AIDS
    Alive
    Allegiance
    Alleluia
    All Shall Be Well
    Allusions Of Innocence
    Alms-giving
    Amdg
    America
    Amok
    Anam Cara
    Anastasia
    And Every Stone Shall Cry
    Angel
    Angelus
    Anger
    Animating
    Anniversary
    Anoint
    Answer
    Anxiety
    Apology
    Apple
    April
    Archbishop Desmond Tutu
    Arizona
    Arms
    Arthurian Legend
    Artist
    Ascension Day
    Ash
    Ash Wednesday
    ASL
    Aspects Of The Heart: The Many Paths Of A Good Life
    Audience Participation
    Augustinian
    Aurora Chapel
    Author
    Authority
    Autobiography
    Ave-maria
    Awareness
    Awe
    Baby
    Bad
    Baggage
    Baking
    Balance
    Balm
    Baptism
    Bear One Another's Burdens
    Beauty
    Beginnings
    Behold
    Belief
    Bell
    Beloved
    Beltane
    Benedictine
    Benedictine Canons
    Benedict XVI
    Benevolent
    Bible
    Bible Belt
    Birth
    Birthdays
    Bishop
    Bishop Kirk Smith
    Bitterness
    Blame
    Blessing
    Blogs
    Blood
    Blossom
    Body
    Body Of Christ
    Boko Haram
    Bold
    Book Of Common Prayer
    Books
    Boundary Crossing
    Bouquet
    Boy Scouts
    Brainguys
    Brave
    Bravery
    Bread
    Bread Of Heaven
    Break For Beauty
    Breath
    Bridge
    Bringbackourgirls
    Broken
    Brother
    Brush
    Cab Calloway
    Cake
    Call
    Call For Submissions
    Calm
    Camping
    Candlemas
    Candles
    Canon
    Canvas
    Care
    Carols
    Caryll Houselander
    Catechesis
    Celibacy
    Chant
    Chanukah
    Chapbook
    Charity
    Cheerios
    Childhood
    Children
    Chocolate
    Choices
    Chrism
    Christ
    Christian
    Christianity
    Christians
    Christmas
    Christology
    Chrysalis
    Church
    Cleaning
    Clergy
    Clericalism
    Cleveland
    Cloth
    Clothing
    Cloud
    Cloud Of Witnesses
    Clover
    Codependency
    Cody Unterseher
    Coffee
    College
    Collegeville
    Coloring
    Colors
    Common Good
    Community
    Communityofstpeter
    Community Of St. Peter
    Compassion
    Competition
    Complacency
    Confidence
    Conflict Resolution
    Connections
    Constitution
    Context
    Contraindicated
    Control
    Conversatio
    Conversion
    Conviction
    Cool
    Corn Dog Mama
    Corporal
    Corporations
    Corruption
    Countenance
    Counter-cultural
    Courage
    Covenant
    Crafty
    Crawling
    Creation
    Creativity
    Creed
    Crimson
    Critic
    Cross
    Crowdfunding Campaign
    Crucifixion
    C S Lewis
    Cultivation
    Culture
    Cup
    Cursing
    Cyril Of Jerusalem
    Dance
    Dancing
    Daniel 9:3-10
    Darkness
    Dark Night Of The Soul
    Daughters
    Dawn
    Deacon
    Deadly Sins
    Death
    Deception
    Deep Within
    Defenders
    Delight
    Demons
    Denise
    Depression
    Desert
    Desire
    Despair
    Detachment
    Deuteronomy 32:11
    Devotion
    Dialogue
    Diamond
    Difficult
    Diocese Of Cleveland
    Dirt
    Dirty Word
    Disappointment
    Discernment
    Disciples
    Disciples Of Christ
    Disobedience
    Distress
    Ditl
    Divine Feminine
    Divinity
    Divorce
    Dl-smith
    Doll
    Dominican
    Dom Virgil Michel
    Doubt
    Drama
    Dreams
    Dry
    Dust
    Dwell
    Ears
    Earth
    Earth Day
    Easter
    Easter Friday
    Easter Monday
    Easter Saturday
    Easter Thursday
    Easter Tuesday
    Easter Wednesday
    Ecmasu
    Ecstasy
    Editing
    Ego
    Egypt
    Elizabeth
    Elizabeth A Hawksworth
    Embers
    Embrace
    Emmanuel
    Emotion
    Empowerment
    Empty
    Encounter
    Endings
    Endurance
    Enemies
    Energy
    Engagement
    Enneagram
    Enslavement
    Enslaving
    Enveloping
    Epics
    Episcopalchurch
    Episcopal Church
    Eucharist
    Evening Prayer
    Evil
    Excommunication
    Exodus
    Expectation
    Exposed
    Extraordinary
    Eyes
    Face
    Facebook
    Facets
    Failure
    Fair Trade
    Faith
    Faithful Word Baptist Church
    Familiarity
    Families
    Family
    Famine
    Father
    Fattuesday
    Fear
    Feast
    Feast Of Martha Mary And Lazarus
    Feast Of St. Joseph
    Feast Of The Annunciation
    Feeding
    Feeling Good
    Feet
    Fellowship
    Feminism
    Fertile
    Fetters
    Fever
    Fey Publishing
    Fight
    Fingers
    Fire
    First Communion
    Fish
    Flame
    Flannery O'Connor
    Flourish
    Flowers
    Following The Path
    Food
    Football
    Footprints
    Footwashing
    Forgiveness
    Fortitude
    Fragrance
    Franciscans
    Franciscan Sisters Of Pepetual Adoration
    Freedom
    Friends
    Fruitful
    Full Moon
    Funeral
    Furies
    Future
    Galatians 6:2
    Game
    Gardening
    Garment
    Gary Dreslinski
    Gathering
    Gaudete Sunday
    Gaza Strip
    G D
    G D
    Generosity
    Generous
    Genius
    Gentleness
    Genuine
    Gift
    Gifts
    Girls
    Girl Scouts
    Glass
    Glass Ceiling
    Glow
    God
    Goddess
    Godmother
    Gold
    Golgotha
    Good
    Good Friday
    Goodness
    Goodness Is Stronger Than Evil
    Good News
    Goodreads
    Gospel
    Gospel According To Kate
    Gospel According To Luke
    Gospel According To Mark
    Grace
    Grandfather
    Grandmother
    Gratitude
    Green
    Greenville
    Grief
    Grin
    Guest Post
    Guilt
    Gulabi Gang
    Habit
    Haiku
    Halloween
    Hands
    Happiness
    Happy
    Happy Feet
    Harm
    Harmony
    Harvest
    Hate
    Hatred
    Healing
    Healing Through The Dark Emotions
    Health Insurance
    Healthy
    Hear
    Heart
    Heartbeats Voices Against Oppression
    Hearth
    Heart Talks With Mother God
    Heat
    Heathen
    Hebrews 10:9
    Hegemony
    Heidi Chapel
    Hell
    Hen
    Henri Nouwen
    Here I Am
    Heresy
    Hermeneutic Of Suspicion
    Hiatus
    Hiding
    Hild
    Hildegard Of Bingen
    Historicstpeterchurch
    Historic St. Peter Church
    Hobby Lobby
    Holidays
    Holy
    Holy Is His Name
    Holy Land
    Holy Orders
    Holy-saturday
    Holy-week
    Homage
    Home
    Homer
    Homily
    Honeycomb
    Hope
    Hospice
    Hospitality
    House
    House Church
    Humanity
    Human Trafficking
    Humiliation
    Humility
    Hunger
    Hurt
    Husband
    Hymn
    Hymnal
    Hypocrisy
    Icon
    Icons
    Identity
    IDF
    Idol
    Ignorance
    Illumination
    Images
    Imagination
    Imagine
    Imagining Argentina
    Imminent
    Importuning
    I'm Sorry
    Incarnation
    Incense
    Indie-press
    Indifference
    Indulgences
    Infant
    Injustice
    Insiders
    Insight
    Inspiration
    Instrument
    Integrity
    Intention
    Intercessions
    Internationalwomensday
    International Womens Day
    Interview
    Intimacy
    Intuition
    Invitation
    Invitatory
    Iraq
    Islam
    Israel
    Israel Loves Palestine
    It's Amazing
    Jacob
    Jax Goss
    Jealousy
    Jean-janzen
    Jem
    Jericho
    Jerusalem
    Jesuits
    Jesus
    Jewish
    Jews
    Job
    John 1:29
    John-1516
    John-4129
    John Michael Talbot
    John O'Donohue
    John Of The Cross
    John The Baptist
    Joseph
    Journals
    Journey
    Joy
    J R R Tolkien
    Judge
    Judgment
    Julia Cameron
    Julian Of Norwich
    Julie Fowlis
    July 29 1974
    Justice
    Justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg
    Keeley Bruner
    Kenosis
    Key
    Kickstarter
    Kidnapping
    Kindness
    Kiss Of Peace
    Knock On The Door
    Knowing
    Knowledge
    Kristen-duvall
    Labor
    Lady
    Lady And The Tramp
    Laetare Sunday
    Laetare-sunday
    Lake Effect Voices Of Toronto
    Lake Pleasant
    La La Loo
    Lamb-of-god
    Lamentation
    Lamp
    Landscape
    Last Supper
    Latkes
    Laughter
    Laundry
    Lawrence-thornton
    Layer
    Lazarus
    Leadership
    Leaving
    Lectio-divina
    Lectionary
    Lent
    Lent I
    Lent II
    Lent III
    Lent III
    Lent IV
    Lent V
    Letting Go
    Leviticus
    Lgbt
    LGBTQ
    Liberation
    Liberty
    Lies
    Life
    Lifeblood
    Life Love Liturgy The Book
    Light
    Limbs
    Limits
    Lincoln Logs
    Listening
    Litany
    Liturgical-calendar
    Liturgical Renewal
    Liturgy
    Liturgy Of The Hours
    Living Lent
    Living Water
    Living-water
    Lj Idol
    Locked Rooms
    Logos
    Loss
    Love
    Luke 14:26
    Lullaby
    Lumen Christi
    Magnificat
    Magnificent
    Majesty
    Man
    Mandala
    Mandate
    Manger
    Mardisgras
    Mardis-gras
    Marginalized
    Marigold
    Marion Zimmer Bradley
    Marriage
    Martha
    Martin-luther
    Martyr
    Marvel
    Mary
    Mary Magdalene
    Masterwork
    Matthew 25:23
    Matthew Fox
    Matzo Ball Soup
    Maundy Thursday
    Maycrowning
    May-day
    Medieval
    Meditation
    Memories
    Memorization
    Memory Stands Still
    Men
    Mend
    Menorah
    Mercy
    Messiah
    Metanoia
    Michael Bublé
    Middle East
    Midwife
    Mighty
    Milk
    Mindfulness
    Minimum-wage
    Ministries
    Ministry
    Minnesota
    Miracles
    Miriam
    Miriam Greenspan
    Mirror
    Mission
    Missionary Cenacle Volunteers
    Moist
    Mommy Blog
    Monastic
    Monsoon
    Moon
    Morning Pages
    Morning Prayer
    Moses
    Mother
    Mother-angelica
    Mother God
    Mothers-day
    Mother-teresa
    Motivation
    Mourning
    Movement
    MRAs
    Multiplication
    Multi Religious
    Mummy
    Murder
    Murmuring
    Muse
    Music
    Muslims
    Mystagogy
    Mystery
    Names
    NaNoWriMo
    Narrative
    Nature
    Nausea
    Navy
    Need
    Negation
    Neighbor
    Nephews
    News
    New Testament
    New Year
    New-york-times
    Nicola-griffith
    Nicola Slee
    Nigeria
    Night
    Night Prayer
    Nina Simone
    Nine-months
    No
    Noach Dzmura
    Noonday Prayer
    Not-for-sale-campaign
    Not-for-sale-campaign
    Novel
    Novice
    Novitiate
    Nrsv
    O Antiphons
    Oasis
    Ob-audire
    Obedience
    Obsessions
    O Clavis David
    Odd
    O Emmanuel
    Ohio
    Olives
    Olive Trees
    Online
    Ontario
    Open-letter
    Oppression
    O Radix Jesse
    Orange
    Orange Blossoms
    Order
    Ordinary-time
    Ordination
    Ordo
    O Rex Gentium
    Original Sin
    Orlando
    O Sapientia
    Osb
    Other
    Out-of-the-depths
    Outsiders
    Pagan
    Pain
    Painting
    Palestine
    Palestine-loves-israel
    Pall
    Palm Fronds
    Palm Sunday
    Pancakes
    Parables
    Parents
    Parentwin
    Paschal-troparion
    Passion Sunday
    Passive
    Past
    Pastor
    Pastoral Care
    Path-ethic
    Pathways Of Grace
    Patriarchy
    Pattern
    Peace
    Pelagius
    Penance
    Pentecost
    Pentecost-season
    Pentecost-season
    Perfection
    Pericope
    Permission
    Persecution
    Personhood
    Pet
    Pharaoh
    Philadelphia 11
    Phoenix
    Phonetic Alphabet
    Pilgrimage
    Planting
    Play
    Playlist
    Poetry
    Polished
    Poor
    Pope-francis
    Possibilities
    Potty Training
    Power
    Practice
    Practice-makes-perfect
    Praise
    Prayer
    Prayer Book
    Prayer-requests
    Preaching
    Pregnant
    Prejudice
    Presence
    Present
    President Barack Obama
    Presiding
    Presiding-bishop-katharine-jefferts-schori
    Presiding-bishop-katharine-jefferts-schori
    Prestige
    Pride
    Priesthood
    Princess Amanda
    Prior
    Prison
    Privilege
    Profession
    Progressive
    Proper-15
    Prophetic
    Prostration
    Protect
    Protest
    Psalm 1
    Psalm 10
    Psalm 100
    Psalm 105
    Psalm 106
    Psalm 107
    Psalm 109
    Psalm 116
    Psalm-118
    Psalm-121
    Psalm-130
    Psalm-136
    Psalm-138
    Psalm 139
    Psalm 141
    Psalm-143
    Psalm 144
    Psalm22
    Psalm 23
    Psalm 24
    Psalm 25
    Psalm 26
    Psalm42
    Psalm-44
    Psalm 51
    Psalm63
    Psalm-67
    Psalm 68
    Psalm 78
    Psalm 79
    Psalm 94
    Psalms
    Psalter
    Public Ministry
    Published
    Pulse
    Puritanism
    Queen
    Queendom
    Questions
    Quiet
    Quiz
    Radical
    Rain
    Rape
    Rape Culture
    Reading
    Realization
    Rebecca-longbow
    Rebellion
    Reb-zalman
    Reconciliation
    Red
    Reflection
    Refuge
    Rehearsal
    Reign-of-god
    Rejection
    Rejoice
    Relief
    Religion
    Religious Extremism
    Religious Formation
    Religious-right
    Remember
    Repent
    Repetition
    Reproductive-health
    Resentment
    Resistance
    Resolution
    Rest
    Restless
    Resurrection
    Retreat
    Revbobmarrone
    Reveal
    Revelation-56
    Revenge
    Review
    Rhythm
    Richard-rohr
    Ritual
    Ritualizing
    Ritual Stories
    Robert-pirsig
    Roman Catholic
    Roman Catholicism
    Root
    Rose
    Rosyfingered-dawn
    Royal
    Ruach
    Rubrics
    Rule
    Sacrament
    Sacred
    Sacred Body
    Sacred Rebels Oracle
    Sacrifice
    Sad
    Saint-catherine-of-siena
    Salome
    Salvation
    Sapling
    Sara Bareilles
    Sarnia
    Savior
    Scotus
    Scripture
    Second-coming
    Secret
    See
    Seed
    Seek And You Shall Find
    Selfawareness
    Self Awareness
    Self-emptying
    Self-emptying
    Self Sacrifice
    Serenity
    Servant Leader
    Sex
    Shackles
    Shade
    Shadow
    Sheep
    Shekhinah
    Shelter
    Shepherd
    Shepherdess
    Shiloh Sophia Mccloud
    Short Fiction
    Showing Up
    Showing-up
    Shrovetuesday
    Shrove-tuesday
    Sickness
    Sign
    Silence
    Silhouette
    Simplicity
    Sin
    Singing
    Sister
    Sister-act
    Sksm
    Sky
    Slave Labor
    Slavery
    Sleep
    Slippery-slope
    Sloth
    Slow
    Slut Shaming
    Social-networking
    Softball
    Softness
    Soil
    Solarwyrm-press
    Solarwyrm-press
    Solomon-21013
    Song
    Sonoran Desert
    Sons
    Soothe
    Sophia
    Sophia-network
    Sorrow
    Sound
    Space
    Spark
    Sparkle
    Spider
    Spirit
    Spiritual
    Spiritual Companioning
    Spiritual Direction
    Spirituality
    Spirit Whispers
    Spring
    Spring Equinox
    Sr-joan-chittister
    Srkate
    Sr-kate
    Sr-thea-bowman
    Stability
    Stars
    St-augustine
    St. Augustine Episcopal Parish
    St. Augustine's
    St Benedict
    St. Brigid's
    Stephanie-hogan-weber
    St-james-chapel
    St. John's School Of Theology
    St-johns-school-of-theology-seminary
    St. Mary Of The Annunciation
    St-mary-of-the-annunciation-benedictine-canons
    Stories
    Storm
    Strawberry Moon
    Strength
    Struggle
    Stubborn
    Stumbling
    Success
    Succulent
    Suffering
    Suicide
    Summer
    Sun
    Sunday
    Sunset
    Support
    Surprise
    Suzanne-farnham
    Suzanne-toolan
    Sweetness
    Swimming
    Symbol
    Synchronicity
    Table
    Taized97da0e93b
    Taking-sides
    Talking
    Tamara Woodbury
    Tamora Pierce
    Taste
    Teaching
    Team
    Tears
    Tempe
    Tenacity
    Tenebrae
    Terror
    Terry Pratchett
    Thanksgiving
    Thanksgivukah
    Thea
    Thea Koinonia
    Thealogical
    Thealogy
    Theanism
    Thean Psalter
    Thea Press
    The-artists-way
    The-call
    The-casa
    The Chronicles Of Narnia
    The Leukemia And Lymphoma Society
    The Lord Of The Rings
    The-miracles-of-santa-fico
    The Mists Of Avalon
    The-name-of-the-rose
    Theotokos
    The Reed Of God
    The Rev Dr Gil Stafford
    Thesis
    The Song Of The Lioness
    Thessalonians-27b8
    The Way
    Thirst
    Thomas-merton
    Threads
    Three
    Threshold
    Thunder
    Thurible
    Thursday-night-community
    Tiffany Aching
    Time
    Tired
    Toilet
    Tomb
    Torn
    Toronto Newsgirls Boxing League
    Touch
    Touch The Sky
    Tradition
    Tragedy
    Transcendent
    Transform
    Transition
    Translation
    Transparency
    Tree
    Trees
    TreeSisters
    Triduum
    Trinitycathedral
    Trinity-cathedral
    Troop
    Trope
    Truest-singing
    Trust
    Truth
    Ts-eliot
    Turning
    Twitter
    Umberto-eco
    Unclean
    Understanding
    Unexpected
    Unfruitful
    Unholy
    United Church Of Christ
    Unity
    Universe
    Unworthy
    Ups
    Upset
    Valentine
    Valley-of-the-sun
    Value
    Vase
    Vatican-ii
    Vicar
    Victim
    Victory
    Vigil
    Violet
    Vision
    Vocation
    Voice
    Voices
    Vows
    Vulnerable
    Waffles
    Walking
    War
    Watched-pot-never-boils
    Water
    Weaving
    Website
    Wedding Day
    Wedding-party
    Wedding Preparation
    Weed
    Welcome
    What-emotion-are-you-guided-by
    When-it-comes-to-healing
    Whims
    Whoopi-goldberg
    Wicked
    Wife
    Wilderness
    Will
    Window
    Wine
    Winter
    Wisdom
    Witchcraft
    Withdraw
    Womanatthewell
    Woman At The Well
    Womb
    Women
    Wonder
    Word
    Works
    Works-of-mercy
    Works-of-mercy
    World
    World-community-of-christian-meditation
    World-day-of-vocations
    Worry
    Worthy
    Wound
    Wrath
    Wreath
    Writers-block
    Writing
    Wrongdoing
    Year Of Prayer
    Yes
    Young-people
    Zechariah
    Zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.