What Does Prayer Do?

What is it, exactly, that prayer is meant to do? We can begin with the theologian Oliver Crisp, who writes that prayer is often considered a “solution to a problem — or, at least, as a means by which a perso... Read More...

Love, Prayer, and Her Majesty the Queen

By Jonathan Turtle Like so many people I was deeply saddened by the recent death of the Queen but it didn’t quite hit me until I was in the pulpit on the morning of Sunday, September 11 and I reached the par... Read More...

The Searchlight of the Holy Spirit

By Marcia Hotchkiss One of the gifts of my spiritual direction training program a few years ago was exposure to the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. It introduced me to an imaginative and prayerful engagement with the gospel stories, which in turn... Read More...

Hearing God Speak

By Mary Foulger Have you ever considered asking your children to listen to the Holy Spirit when they are having a hard time listening to you? That is exactly what my pastor Amy Ryan did one time when her you... Read More...

When We Make Mistakes in Our Prayers

By Mary Foulger I was embarrassed. I had been so excited to pray with some of the important leaders in my Christian organization. Perhaps I would learn something, or maybe even simply demonstrate I could pra... Read More...

Pascal, Prayer, and Diversion

 By Dane Neufeld Few writers have managed to say so much with so little as Blaise Pascal in his Pensées. His thoughts on diversion and prayer seem especially apt in our present circumstance. Pascal famously argued that we need diversions to avoid staring in... Read More...

The Way of Love: Pray

Part of a series on The Way of Love. By Nathan Jennings Bishop Curry’s Way of Love provides the church with “practices for a Jesus-centered life.” Many of these practices are traditional Christian discipl... Read More...

To hush as the shadows lengthen

By Calvin Lane I am not a good sleeper, a challenge since childhood. I used to watch my younger brother fall blissfully asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. To this day, falling asleep is terribly hard... Read More...