Inward Grace

03/08/2026

02/24/2026

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
~ Psalm 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, open and receptive, so that I may embrace the many ways you choose to visit my life.

May I be freed from the clutter of cultural enticements, so that I can enjoy the beauty of life’s simple things and relish the gifts I so easily take for granted.

May I be brushed free of frantic busyness, so that I will have time to dwell with you in the listening space of solitude and silence

May I be released from the binds of bias and prejudice, and be kind toward others

May I be cleansed of anxiety and lack of trust, restoring in me an enduring faith in your abiding presence and unconditional love

Create a clean heart in me, God. Dust off the unmindful activity that constantly collects there. De-clutter my heart from harsh judgments and negativity. Wash away my resistance to working through difficult relationships. Rinse off my unloving so the beauty of my generous and kind heart can shine forth. Remove whatever keeps me from following in your compassionate footsteps.

May it be so

~ adapted from Joyce Rupp

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02/13/2026

The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others.

~ Bell Hooks

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01/30/2026

Life is amazing. And then it's awful. And then it's amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful it's ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That's just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it's breathtakingly beautiful.

— L.R. Knost

Phil Greenwood - Blossoms

12/12/2025

I think of these days before Yule as being qarrtsiluni days. That lovely Inuit word with its bewildering arrangement of consonants means "sitting together in the dark, waiting for something wonderful to happen", and that is how these darkling intervals at the end of the calendar year feel to me.
Qarrtsiluni is a northern thing. Before a hunt, Inuit hunters gather quietly indoors and sit silently in the darkness, no lanterns or other sources of light. They wait for inspiration, for a song to come to them that honors the spirit of the whale and its gifts to the tribe. When the song comes into their collective conscious, they sing it together. It is a wonderful way of describing the fertile darkness that enfolds us before something creative dances into being.

~ Cate Kerr

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12/09/2025

A Spiritual Companion

When seeking spiritual guidance, we are susceptible to a superficial search for easy answers and shallow meaning.

Living into a new way of self-understanding and spiritual depth is aided by having a sturdy spiritual companion or soul friend.

The best guides are willing to be silent yet present, and are comfortable with unknowing.

God's Spirit is ultimately the sole source of spiritual guidance, comfort, and knowing.

~ Henri Nouwen, info@henrinouwen.org

12/08/2025

Quiet winter night 🎨 Carol Collette
Canadian , b. 1945 -
Watercolour and Etching

10/27/2025

We enter the desert to find the oasis . . .

09/17/2025

THE CALL TO HEALING

When our childhood wounds remain unprocessed, when we bury painful feelings and live as a false self in the world, no matter how successful or famous or powerful or “enlightened” we are, those wounds end up dictating our speech and actions from their dark home deep within the unconscious. And we end up becoming violent, manipulative and dishonest to others and to ourselves.

The journey of healing will take great courage! We will be asked to invite excruciatingly uncomfortable feelings back into the light of conscious awareness.

As we heal, we may feel more vulnerable than ever. More unsafe than ever. More angry than ever. More powerful and powerless, hopeful and hopeless than ever, as unbearable material finally becomes bearable in the holding field of Presence. But now, at least, we are FEELING these feelings. So they can be met, and owned, and embraced, and accepted, and digested. And no longer acted out on others. No longer vomited out unconsciously into the world.

No matter how spiritual or liberated or woke we think we are, no matter how much effort we have put into creating a false “me”, no matter how much we believe we have transcended our issues, we just cannot ignore the cry of our humanness any longer. Our sensitivity, our bodies and our feelings, our doubts, our exquisite vulnerability and the glory and wisdom of the feminine - we must honour these things now, more than ever.

- Jeff Foster