Spirituality

Fr. Glenn Jones:

Well, here we are at Labor Day again, when many take a holiday from … labor. Hmmm … seems a little strange. Not that I’m complaining. 😉

Of course, Labor Day was founded “to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United States.” (Wikipedia). Hopefully our labor contributes to the benefit of not only ourselves and families, but of society as a whole. We labor with the aim of being “successful”.

But that begs the question: What is success?

Of course, many view success as the attainment Read More

By Fr. Glenn Jones:

Not infrequently you’ll see persons very actively lobbying for this or that deceased person to be declared a saint. But the person is a saint or not; our lobbying for such does nothing for his eternal condition. Some such activists might protest: “So that our town/region/state has a declared saint!” Well, if the intent is to have an example from “one of their own” persons can look to so as to realize the very real achievability of holiness, it is a good thing. The danger, however – as has happened often in the past – is boasting about “having” a local saint, vicariously basking in the Read More

Photo by Father Theophan 

By Father Theophan
Saint Job of Pochaiv Orthodox Church
Los Alamos

This coming Friday, Aug. 26, will mark the end of the Los Alamos Summer Concert Series for 2022. Summer is quickly coming to a close. For the past few months, each Friday I’ve been setting up Saint Job’s little mobile chapel at the pond for the concerts. I think we’ve only missed two.

At the beginning of each evening, I light the first candle and the incense and then I stand nearby, waiting for the curious or distressed. So many children and teens are interested. This is something new, something old, something Read More

By Fr. Glenn Jones:

A surreptitious conjunction of private readings came about recently that brought the contrast of guilt and love to the fore. A favorite little devotional of short daily reflections is entitled “Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man” by Protestant author Walter Henrichsen, who writes from the perspective of one who had earlier in life suffered what most of us have suffered—the inescapable feeling that there must be something “more”, exacerbated by his enduring some of the worst earthly pain imaginable—loss of a child. In an excerpt, he speaks of the guilt arising from Read More

By Fr. Glenn Jones:

A favorite YouTube channel that I’ve stumbled across recently is “Tribal People Try”, in which several persons apparently from the Middle East or perhaps more easterly sample various western foods. Most of the foods have a common familiarity for most Americans in particular (biscuits and gravy, apple cobbler, various snack foods, etc.), surprising the panel participants by the taste and quality, they often comment on the expertise of the chef for even what we might consider the simplest of foods.

Those videos get one thinking about what blessings we have in our lives. That Read More

Clergy from left, Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, retired; Pastor Nicolé Ferry, Assistant Rector Lynn Finnegan and Pastor Deb Church. Courtesy photo

By Pastor Nicolé Raddu Ferry
Bethlehem Lutheran Church

“All Shall be well…”

Will it really? The four clergy women you see at the top of this column hear that question a lot and truth be told, we wonder that often for ourselves.

I have been reading the writings of Kate Bowler, PhD. Kate is a New York Times bestselling author, podcast host, and a professor at Duke University. Six years ago, at age 35, as a wife and mother, she was unexpectedly diagnosed with Read More