Inside the Minds of Valerie and Mike (and Anna)
Advent Vespers at Home It’s Advent. It’s the end of an unusually tough calendar year. It’s the beginning of a new liturgical year for the church. It will also soon be a new calendar year. Advent is a season pregnant with hope. It’s a liminal time of watching, waiting, and wondering (this year's theme for... Continue Reading →
Earlier this week I went up to our local Lutheran camp and retreat center, Mar-Lu Ridge, for a morning of quilt assembling. After we were all done, before I drove home, I went into the chapel. The chapel is an A-frame structure with a wall of glass behind the altar that faces west with a... Continue Reading →
That was the question put to me recently by my pastor. My initial answer…I didn’t know. Words were, are, failing me at this moment. Of course the question and answers simmered after we hung up. The short answer would be the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful. At the moment, do I have a... Continue Reading →
Last year, Advent started with a weekend retreat focused on choosing hope, peace, joy, love, and life. It truly was life-giving even if it was a full and tiring weekend; and it carried into the whole season. This year, Advent carries some weight of Lent. Maybe that Lenten feeling is connected to a realization from... Continue Reading →
A couple of weeks ago, I listened to a podcast episode titled “What Are We Doing and Why Are We Doing It?” This podcast is an ELCA Youth Ministry Network creation. You can listen to it here, https://www.elcaymnet.org/3tcepisode11. In this particular episode, while the focus was on youth ministry, the topic really applies to the... Continue Reading →
The bright yellow caught my eye and changed my plans. I decided I could use a distraction. Someone had left a yellow gerbera daisy in a small vase at the center of the labyrinth. So I stopped and decided to walk the labyrinth, something I haven’t done in a while. But I wasn’t 2 steps onto... Continue Reading →
I recently read a sermon in which the author stated that they “prefer to look at the church as a symphony or a tapestry”. While I can appreciate the idea of being a piece of a bigger artwork, I can’t embrace that the analogy of the church as a tapestry or a symphony, and I’ll... Continue Reading →
My mind is spinning with thoughts as questions from a Facebook post asking about a Gospel reading collided with a book I’m reading about how habits form, become entrenched, and change. In Mark 8:27-37, Jesus is asking his disciples who do people say that he, Jesus, is and then asks his disciples who do they... Continue Reading →
It’s taken me a while to start putting my thoughts and feelings into words. I do remember looking through old Gathering photos 2 years ago as I was pulling some for a gift I was putting together for our Youth and Family Ministry Director who was stepping down. As her husband was emailing me more photos... Continue Reading →
I had heard that the Gathering was big. I knew 30,000 was the typical attendance. I had heard of the energy that emanated from it, especially from the Mass Gatherings. I saw the Facebook posts suggesting getting ear plugs. And let’s not forget that this was Houston at the end of June…so, it was going... Continue Reading →
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