Space for Grief

Sarah lived one hundred twenty-seven years, and Sarah died at Kiriath-arba. Abraham said to the Hittites, “I am a stranger residing among you; give me property for a price so that I may bury my dead. Entreat Ephron for me, so that he might give me the cave of...

Deathbed Confession

We have done our best, O God. Well, not our best. Sometimes not even a half-hearted attempt at “best.” But we have done … something … and of course it was never going to last because time is finite and people are too, but, O God! We...

Nicodemus

Dear One: I loved you in secret, so I must grieve you in secret. Every revelation from you is now a salve for my grief, and I bless the holy breath that gave birth to my spirit. I once sought you in shadows, now I bury you in the shadows with aloe and myrrh and linen—...

In the Garden

How often I’ve thought it would come to this: a battle, a stand-off with swords, a line in the sand between powers; me against you my ally turned into my foe because you were never an ally I trusted; uncertainty mutated into self-doubt projected into...

Ashes to Ashes

Love me until the end, O Christ, until the ashes of this body match the dust of these feet, and together they fold into the holiness of earth’s soil. Love me until the end, O Christ, until every word is finished and every argument laid to rest in the shallow...

Hyssop

Sprinkle death with truth, O Mercy, to dispel its plague upon the living. Mark every doorway with wisdom to guard against violent hatred that courses through the streets. Purge evil with fragrant hyssop. Bind up broken spirits and bones with cleansing joy. Make of...

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