In the midst of life we are in death;from whom can we seek help?From you alone, O Lord,who by our sins are justly angered. Holy God, Holy and Mighty,Holy and merciful Savior,deliver us not into the bitterness of eternal death. Burial of the Dead, Rite II; Book of Common Prayer, p. 492 For years onContinue reading “Again.”
Category Archives: Discernment
Empowered, Grateful, Strong
Nothing in this world will make your life consistently harder than being committed to showing up fully, to refuse to numb and to retreat into a secluded world that narrows with each drink. And when I tell you that I’m grateful every day for the difficulty, it is true. I’m grateful for the the harshContinue reading “Empowered, Grateful, Strong”
A Year Without Alcohol
The question is almost always, “what happened??” Folks want to know what happened whenever I have shared over this past year that I’ve decided to step away from alcohol being a substance that I use. What happened to make me take this drastic move away from something so standard in our society? There is aContinue reading “A Year Without Alcohol”
Reflections
We sat at that same small square table covered in a vinyl tablecloth morning after morning and evening after evening. In the morning we would talk about the delicious breads that were for breakfast and how we slept; in the evening I would try to recount my day in what little Portuguese I knew. IContinue reading “Reflections”
In the Reflection of the Chalice Cup
I tend to think in metaphors; if I can get a metaphor out of my brain and have it actually make sense to others then it means that I have begun to grasp whatever important concept I am trying to more fully understand. Early on in my discernment to the priesthood, a metaphor stuck, andContinue reading “In the Reflection of the Chalice Cup”
On the Eve of My Ordination
On the eve of my ordination I am overwhelmed. I am overwhelmed with gratitude and joy and fear and hope and love and giddy delight. On the eve of my ordination, I look back, amazed that my life has brought me here; that somehow, despite all the ways in which this call could have beenContinue reading “On the Eve of My Ordination”
Were you there?
The old hymn begs the question: “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” Again and again it asks those who sing it or those who hear it to think about their own role in the crucifixion of Christ, even as we are centuries removed from that event. I would sing this hymn in myContinue reading “Were you there?”
The (Overwhelmingly) Great Cloud of Witnesses
In a tunnel, in what seems somehow both like a thousand years ago and yesterday, I began to voice my call. It was a dark, isolating place in which I quietly and timidly voiced the first stirrings of my calling to ministry. Most of the people in my life weren’t comfortable with it, and, toContinue reading “The (Overwhelmingly) Great Cloud of Witnesses”
There’s a Stirring
There is much stirring about in the denomination of which I was once a part, and with all my heart, I hope it continues to be and becomes a holy stirring towards a more faithful reading of scripture. I have spoken much of my love for my former tradition; that those who raised me, bothContinue reading “There’s a Stirring”
Finding My Voice in Wide Open Spaces
A new friend of mine, Mitch, asked me to write a guest blog on his site, Create Grace, for his Music Changed Me series. At the conference where I met Mitch, I remember walking in and genuinely trying to decide how much of myself and my vocation I would share with these people. After goingContinue reading “Finding My Voice in Wide Open Spaces”
Becca Kello 