Unity Hopeful
Dr. Elizabeth M. Woodard
Now is the Time for Spiritual Direction
Spiritual direction is something many people have never considered, or perhaps ever even heard of. While society teaches about the value of seeking out certain types of one-on-one partners to help us live our best lives – therapists, life coaches, medical professionals – society is often silent about how (and who) to look regarding the care of our spirits. With so much change and chaos in the world right now, I would like to formally invite you to consider this for yourself. Perhaps now is the time…
Still Waiting
Now, we begin a season it seems we’ve actually been in for a long time. A season of waiting. A season of watching. A season of hope.
The Christian Church enters Advent saying, “But I’ve already been waiting for nine months.” But for what have we been waiting? Watching? In what do we place our hope? In political outcomes? In our government? In a vaccine? If the answer is yes, Advent bids us: begin a different kind of waiting.
Read MoreA Contemplative Pace
Have you ever felt like the world is moving faster than is comfortable? Have you ever gotten to the end of a normal day and felt like you need a week to recover? Have you ever realized you are holding your breath for the next vacation? I think it isn’t supposed to be like this. Read More
Cruciform Ecumenism
Why it Matters
I wrote a book, and now it’s published!
During my time as a doctoral student, I became convicted more than I had been before about the absurdity of division in the Christian Church in the West. If Christians 2,000 years ago felt that they were handed a truth, a life-changing, life-saving truth, and told to share the good news with others, what right do we, the followers and believers in that truth, have to scandalize that truth by remaining divided with each other? If it’s our responsibility to share this news with “all nations” (Matt 28:19), but we can’t even agree about what that truth is or how to live it, why should anyone take us seriously? To quote myself, “a broken church is hard to sell.” Read More
Exceed all Divisions
I come from an area of the country not known for its hospitality. Bostonians are known for their abrasive attitudes, especially toward outsiders. It’s interesting to travel to other parts of the country and discover cars eager to stop for pedestrians, dining room staff eager to chat about the weather or the french fries, and strangers eager to know someone’s name. It feels unusual to be so warmly welcomed when I leave home. Let’s use this as a metaphor for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Love is Patient First
We’re in a big hurry in this life. From almost the moment we’re born, we are taught to not waste time. Often well intentioned, we fill our days with every imaginable effort to better ourselves and the world. That sounds like a good thing. Is it?
How Dare We Question?
I’ve heard it said that faith means “not questioning.” If you have faith, then you have all the answers, right? Or, if you have faith, then you know you don’t need them, because you trust someone else who’s in charge, right? Faith is accepting what we’re told like good girls and boys. Don’t ask questions. Or, ask questions that have answers you’ve studied and memorized. You can ask, “What are the ten commandments” or, “What is the form and matter of the sacrament of baptism?” But you can’t ask, “is there something after this?” Because if you ask, that means you don’t know, and if you don’t know, that means you lack faith. Yes, I’ve heard all this said. But I think nothing could be further from what a mature faith looks like. Read More
Why Do We Hate Each Other?
This is a legitimate question. This blog is about coming back together, about noticing our innate interconnectedness. If we are to look at this topic seriously, we have to look at the biggest hindrance(s) to that unity. And this is a biggie, perhaps the biggie: Why do we hate each other? Read More
Do You Remember, Too?
My last post looked at soul DNA. We know we have bodily DNA. Is part of that blueprint spiritual as well? This post is going to investigate what kind of information it might hold. I’d like to propose it holds the road map to each other, and to God. I’d like to propose that our very existence is such that we are programmed knowing the way home. We were designed that way. St. Augustine is famous for having said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, Oh God.” I heard it for years before deciding maybe he was onto something. Before I noticed all the things vying for our attention were inferior substitutions for what what we truly seek. Read More
Soul DNA
In past posts, I’ve asked readers to consider the hum of life that buzzes inside them. I’ve asked people to sit long enough to hear to it. I’ve asked us to recall times when it spoke loud and clear, when we seemed to intuit a truth, when something sprang from a well of reality not located in the brain, the consciousness, but elsewhere. I’ve asked that we explore what it’s called and how it works. Let’s dive in. Read More
My Vision of Heaven Includes You
I don’t want to go without you. I don’t think God wants to go without you either.
We all know that the world will end one day. Science tells us the physical world isn’t immortal. Christianity, too, tells us that there will be an end of time. A Parousia. An apocalypse. A second coming. Have you ever wondered when it will happen? The earliest Christians thought it was imminent. Yet, here we are, 2000 years later. Ever wonder why it’s taking longer than the original people thought? I want to suggest: Maybe God is waiting with endless patience until everyone is on board. Until everyone says yes. Until everyone is in the car.
My writing is all about unity. In this essay, I want to suggest it’s an eschatological unity. This means it’s a unity that’s headed somewhere. Like that car parked in the driveway, Mom and Dad are sitting in the car with the rest of the family buckled in, honking the horn, saying, “Come on! Or we’re leaving without you!” Except, as loving parents, they don’t leave. They honk, but they wait. Read More