Morning Briefings

Jesus went into the desert an unknown young carpenter from Nazareth, with thirty years of hidden life behind him. After the desert he returned to Galilee, and started to preach. Quickly he became a public figure, but he loved to withdraw to desert or mountain to recharge his energies by prayer. He moved forward like any of us, with no sure knowledge of what was to happen to him.

–
Sacred Space

Winter is a season of some very real losses. The flowers of springtime are gone; leaves fall. Trees stand bare and revealed. But from these losses are gifts to be had.

– Kathleen R. Fischer
Winter Grace: Spirituality and Aging

We must wait for God, long and meekly, in the wind and wet, in the thunder and lightning, in the cold and the dark. Wait, and He will come. He never comes to those who do not wait.

– Frederick Faber
from the introduction to A Land of Sheltered Promise by Jane Kirkpatrick

It is important to keep a still place in the ‘marketplace.’ This still place is where God can dwell and speak to us. It is also the place from which we can speak in a healing way to all the people we meet in our busy days. Without that still place we start spinning.

– Henri J.M. Nouwen regarding Psalm 46:10
Bread for the Journey

We humans can work hard for each other, and we should and we must work. But it is God, and only God, who heals.

– David Wilkerson
The Cross and the Switchblade

With a second child on the way, we could begin to see the outlines of the future–family portraits, a house filled with the joyful noise of childhood, two kids checking their stockings on Christmas morning. Then, two months into the pregnancy, Sonja lost the baby and our misty-eyed dreams popped like soap bubbles. Grief consumed Sonja. The reality of a child lost, one we would never know. An empty space where there wasn’t one before.

– Todd Burpo
Heaven is for Real

Hope is often the most important gift we can impart to each other. When you’ve suffered a great deal and yet manage to emerge with your strength and hope intact, you can be of tremendous assistance to others.

– Anthony DeStefano
Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To

Jesus knew what he was doing when He said, Do this in memory of me, because He knew the disciples would, even if their future faith were suffering: they’d eat again, they’d at least do that, they’d share a meal again, and when they did, they’d think of Him.

– from Liam Callanan’s
All Saints

Presence is noun, not a verb; it is a state of being, not doing. True presence, or ‘being with’ another person carries with it a silent power–to bear witness to a passage, to help carry an emotional burden, or to begin a healing process.

– Debbie Hall from
This I Believe

We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.

– Helen Keller