“How many times have I heard this passage from the gospel, sighed and thought, you’re right, Jesus.  I just need a nap.  I just need to recharge my batteries and I’ll be set.  But that recharge inevitably diminishes and I’m back to weary.  What’s really needed is a power adaptor, a way to plug into the source of power directly.” Br. Todd Blackham invites us to breathe the very breath of God and rest in the wholeness of God's being.

“Perhaps you’ve had one of those moments.  A dramatic conversion, a seismic shift that changed you, realigned your perception, set you on a path you might not have chosen before.  Maybe you discovered something about yourself that gave you new freedom to live with generosity and gratitude in the world. Or maybe it’s been more subtle, little turning points along the way, small degrees of change that over time mark a major change of trajectory.  Stepping stones of choices gradually opening new ways of love and embrace.” Ponderng the ways the Spirit moves within us and among us, Br. Todd Blackham invites us to seize this moment of re-creation, asking: How free do you want to be?

“I am daily reminded of my own need for ongoing conversion. I am a work-in-progress, and there’s plenty of work to be done. You, too, may know about this.” A hopeful word from Br. Curtis Almquist for all of us works-in-progress.

“All of us, at one time or another, have experienced setbacks in life. Joseph’s example today inspires us to look beyond these setbacks and apparent obstacles to see and trust God’s faithfulness.”

“Our prayers should express our deepest longings, our struggles, our anger, our anguish. God wants us to prevail, but also knows that the struggle is an integral part of the blessing.”

“Throughout Scripture, we see that the work of the Spirit drives people into doing things they could never on their own imagined doing. We see this in Ezekiel, a prophet sent to a people frozen by their inability to hear the word of God; We see this in Paul, a man frozen by his preconceived notion of God, until he was caught up to the third heaven, thereby driving him to become the very person he once persecuted; We see this in ourselves, as suddenly a world we could never have imagined opens before us, and we walk, tentatively at first, and then boldly, right in.”

“Rather than bemoaning the tragic consequences of our fallen human state, Jesus invites us to live with joy, constantly alert for signs of God’s grace around and within us. God is present and at work! Grace and salvation are here, and are available to us in abundance.”

“Saint Paul presumed a battle being waged in this world between good and evil, and it is we who are being fought over.” Br. Curtis Almquist invites us to pray for protection, for ourselves and others, as we begin and end our day.

“There is a paradoxical reason that the Church and the world know the names Peter and Paul: following their own very different paths, they relinquished the authority that comes with human charisma. This progressive renunciation allowed the authority of Jesus more and more to shape their choices, hallow their successes, and especially to redeem their failures. The paradoxical reason that we remember Peter and Paul as pastors of God’s flock is that they knew, better than most, what it meant to be harassed and helpless sheep.” On the feast of Saints Peter & Paul, Br. Keith Nelson acknowledges the surprising reason behind their ages-old fame: renunciation.

“The paradox is that we become like God, not by stretching out our hands in pride, but by choosing to stretch them out in humility and loving service, just as did Jesus.” In a brief four lines from Matthew's gospel, Br. Jame Koester discovers the truth of what God is like, and how we too become like God, in reaching out our hands in acts of humility and loving service.