My paternal grandmother had this habit; having grown up in the foothills that rolled off the Appalachian Mountains in East Tennessee, she was barely educated. When I went off to college, my folks had a bit of advice, as parents are known to do. Their advice was to write my grandmother hand-written notes. I pickedContinue reading “Running Toward Hope Together”
Tag Archives: Jesus
Praying and Trusting Like Jesus
Before I went to seminary to become a priest, I was a preschool teacher. Now, there are many surprisingly transferable skills between the two, but I think my favorite way in which my past connects with my present is how it helps me understand that we are all learning and growing and changing. I rememberContinue reading “Praying and Trusting Like Jesus”
Worried and Distracted? Do Less
One of the delightfully weird gifts of being Christians in the year of Our Lord 2025 is that we get to reflect on some of the more unique and quirky Christian narratives that have made up our religious history. The people, stories, and power of our sacred text did not survive 2,000 years without someContinue reading “Worried and Distracted? Do Less”
Radical, Expansive Mercy
I walked into Ms. Ruth Ann’s funeral – my first Episcopal funeral – and it was the moment that I knew that Episcopal Church was my spiritual home. As a relatively new Episcopalian, I was surprised that the vestments and altar hangings were the same color that were used for baptisms or high holyContinue reading “Radical, Expansive Mercy”
Who Are We To Hinder God?
One can see it the longer one spends out in the garden, or in nature, the ways in which nature tends to take care of itself. But as I’ve learned to garden over the years, I’ve learned that sometimes the spaces we cultivate for flowers or trees or crops need special care so that theyContinue reading “Who Are We To Hinder God?”
The Measure We Give
There are times when I turn to the Holy Scriptures and God’s comfort is undeniable, but sometimes, on the first read, I can read our sacred texts as an impossible bar to clear. In today’s gospel, I have to confess, my first thoughts were that I do not love my enemies as I should;Continue reading “The Measure We Give”
Redeemed, Beloved, and Called
There is a particular sort of response that I have whenever someone really pushes my buttons; maybe it’s an inflamed issue that gets lots of attention in the media or something more deep-seeded and woven into childhood wounds, but no matter the cause, I tend to have the same response, and since it’s my lastContinue reading “Redeemed, Beloved, and Called”
A Hard Edges and Dark Corners Christmas
When I had the opportunity to walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, an ancient pilgrimage across Northern Spain a few years ago, I shared stories and pictures from that journey with this congregation. One of the conversations I had when I got back, was with someone who marveled at how, in every picture, IContinue reading “A Hard Edges and Dark Corners Christmas”
My Advent Prayer
I count it one of my life’s great gifts that I went to the same small, liberal arts college as my younger brother. For most of our lives up until our college years, I was painfully quiet and shy, and he was, well, painfully loud and gregarious. He was on campus for less than twoContinue reading “My Advent Prayer”
Baptized into Love
The way the story goes in my family history, it was my grandmother who first noticed. My dad’s mom raised five boys on the southside of Indianapolis, in a two-bedroom home so she got pretty good at paying attention. But it was my grandmother who first noticed that as I graduated from the chaos ofContinue reading “Baptized into Love”
Becca Kello 