News and Updates

This summer I have found myself intentionally practicing gratitude. Both in Palm Beach and away in several climes I gave thanks for the people and mission of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, for the beauty of the coast, for the generosity of those who make life-changing...

Iona is a small island off Scotland’s west coast where St. Columba built his religious community in the 6th century. Standing at the back of the island, you look south and west across the rough and windy Irish Sea. It is a route followed by Columba, when driven by...

I do a bit of sport fishing and hunting, and I know how important it is to keep watch. I have spent many hours peering out of a blind in the early morning mist, or watching lines in the water. When you keep watch, you’re alert; you’re aware of everything around you;...

Driving to Jacksonville from Palm Beach last month, I was listening to a country music station. A song by Faith Hill entitled, “The Secret of Life,” came on the radio, and I was struck by the words about the nightly ritual of a couple of regulars at the “Starlight...

I vividly remember an experience I had as a young teenager in the 1960s. I was playing sandlot baseball with my buddies, and overhead flew six B-52 Bombers. We knew they were on their way to Vietnam to carry out bombing missions. When the planes were out of sight and...

We all know what it feels like to be off-kilter, to be out-of-sorts, to lose our bearings, to not be ourselves. When we’re scattered we lose wholeness and consistency. Multiple aspects of our selves compete for attention. Internal fragmentation makes for a lack of...

When was the last time your love was expanded? Perhaps it was at a summer camp when you learned that someone very different from yourself would be a cabin mate. Perhaps it was during an act of service when you co-joined someone’s significant need with your equal and...

The Fourth of July is a nice oasis in the midst of summer — a certain languor about the day, hot weather, a cook-out perhaps, and fireworks in the evening. The day allows us to repose on the solid substance of America. We drift for a day, afloat on the core of our...

Nothing in all of life is more gripping than thinking about one’s death. Much of what we do, or don’t do, is in response to the reality that one day we will all die. But in the face of this reality, Christians declare that death is not the last word in our existence....