Tag Archives: Barbara Holmes
Wisdom beyond the Veil
Communion of Saints Wisdom beyond the Veil Tuesday, March 9, 2021 By passing along the narrow road they widened it, and while they went along, trampling on the rough ways, they went ahead of us. —Augustine of Hippo, Sermon for the feast of Saint Quadratus I can’t imagine that God expects all human beings to… Continue Reading Wisdom beyond the Veil
A Cosmology of Connection
Nature, Cosmos, and Connection A Cosmology of Connection Wednesday, February 17, 2021 Ash Wednesday Christians often use the season of Lent (which begins today), the six and a half weeks preceding Easter, to reconnect with God and the fullness of our own humanity—the good and the bad—in some intentional way. The act doesn’t need to… Continue Reading A Cosmology of Connection
New Language for a New Story
Nature, Cosmos, and Connection New Language for a New Story Monday, February 15, 2021 The Spirit whispers, the ancestors agree. You are star born and God loved; The universe awaits your gifts. —Barbara Holmes, Race and the Cosmos The addition of Barbara Holmes to the CAC’s Living School has been a gift, with her wonderful… Continue Reading New Language for a New Story
Awe and Joy
African American Spirituality and Song Awe and Joy Friday, February 12, 2021 The spiritual journey is a constant interplay between moments of awe followed by a general process of surrender to that moment. We must first allow ourselves to be captured by the goodness, truth, or beauty of something beyond and outside ourselves. Then we… Continue Reading Awe and Joy
Contemplative Song
African American Spirituality and Song Contemplative Song Tuesday, February 9, 2021 The things that help us discover and return to a place of integrated knowing are both obvious and not obvious at all. Silence is one of them, and probably the one I speak of most often. Yet music and art create valuable channels to… Continue Reading Contemplative Song
Our Cosmic Mother
The Cosmic Egg Our Cosmic Mother Thursday, January 28, 2021 The image of the “Cosmic Egg of Meaning” is in some sense maternal, with each dome nestled and held by something larger and more powerful than itself. This is an ancient idea that may be helpful to our postmodern psyches, allowing us to embrace the… Continue Reading Our Cosmic Mother
True Liberation in God
Liberation True Liberation in God Monday, January 18, 2021 Martin Luther King Jr. Day There can be no outer freedom without some level of inner liberation. This is a universal truth, but a lesson that each of us must learn for ourselves. If we pursue freedom from a reactionary position, out of our own fear… Continue Reading True Liberation in God
A Foundational Sense of Awe
A Time of Unveiling A Foundational Sense of Awe Wednesday, January 6, 2021 Feast of Epiphany Abandon hidden things, / Take up what is revealed! —Ephrem the Syrian, Hymn 81 Healthy religion gives us a foundational sense of awe. It re-enchants an otherwise empty universe. It gives people a universal reverence toward all things. Only… Continue Reading A Foundational Sense of Awe
Repairing and Restoring
Order, Disorder, Reorder: Part Three Repairing and Restoring Thursday, August 27, 2020 Barbara Holmes, a member of our Living School faculty, writes about what I’m calling Reorder as a cosmological fact. When we return to the original Order—the unbroken unity of all of creation with and in God—with new eyes, we see the gifts of… Continue Reading Repairing and Restoring
The Cosmic Order
Order, Disorder, Reorder: Part One The Cosmic Order Wednesday, August 12, 2020 Matter is the common, universal, tangible setting, infinitely shifting and varied, in which we live. . . . By matter we are nourished, lifted up, linked to everything else, invaded by life. —Teilhard de Chardin The physical structure of the universe is love.… Continue Reading The Cosmic Order