Poetry and Prayer—Day 23: March 23

Written by: Julia Smolucha

Marked by Ashes by Walter Brueggemann

Frazzled, we wait. Frightened, we wait. Forgetful, we wait. Forgotten, we wait. Fearless, we wait. Forged in the fire of misfortune, we wait. Fatigued, we wait. With failed hope, we wait. Unforsaken, we wait. As we wait, you enter in. Unexpected. Sometimes unwelcome. Often unseen. In our waiting, find us, renew us, bless us. Amen.

Shafts of Light, VII: Albert Schweitzer

June 13, 2021

In 1952, Dr. Schweitzer was awarded the No-bel Peace Prize for the philosophy he always called “reverence for life,” and when Dr. Schweitzer talked about “reverence for life,” he didn’t just mean human life, but all life—human life, animal life, plant life, even insect life, which is strange coming from a doctor whose caseload would have been overflowing with malaria patients. The truly ethical human being, he always said, will treat all life as sacred.

Shafts of Light, VI: Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan

June 6, 2021

Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan are the only partnered pair featured in the Malott Chapel windows. All the rest are extraordinary human beings but solo acts. Without the other, neither Helen Keller nor Anne Sullivan would be included in our group of 15 twentieth-century heroes and saints; we wouldn’t even know their names. They’re a team.

Shafts of Light, V: Anne Frank

May 30, 2021

Why do we preach these sermons about the Shafts of Light in our Malott Chapel, and why do you read books like Letter from Birmingham Jail and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison and Diary of a Young Girl? It’s because they sharpen our virtue, no? They make us finer neighbors and citizens. It is impossible to read these books and emerge unchanged.

Poetry and Prayer—Day 23: March 23