calling
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Business Meeting
Our stated task? Refine the budget.Our defined goal: Increase the bottom line. Ha!Our real goal? Embody compassion and beauty. Be God for each other and all people– God's hands, voice and heart. That makes all… Continue reading
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Great and Historic Virtue
We see our lives small:what have we accomplished, really? Yesterday I spent three hours ironing–did this heal the world?Did this advance the reign of God? From the 13th centuryechoes the voice of St. Bonaventure:"The perfection of a spiritual man [woman]is… Continue reading
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The Ticket to Heaven
"What's this?" Jesus asked his disciples.He held up a rectangular slip of paper. "Looks like a light-rail pass,"said Peter. Jesus flipped it over:one the back, in large letters,he'd written the word HEAVEN."What's this?" he asked. "Oh, oh, I know!" said… Continue reading
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Baptism
This dove is drunk,having imbibed in spirits holy,less inebriated than ecstatic. No wonder she descendslike a pigeon seeking the bronze headof a long-forgotten herofrozen in the park. But this hero is flesh and blood,and emerges from the Jordandripping and slippery.… Continue reading
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Easter, 2012
Mostly I saw it coming:the suicidal thoughts in the garden,the affectionate betrayal of a best friend,the whipping, the mocking,the exhausting trudge through the gauntlet of spittle,the thorns, the nails, the spear,absolute abandonment,that cold slab in the endless, empty dark.Yes, I expected… Continue reading
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What We Do
Cat laps cream. Dog chews bone. Dirk gnaws words. Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading
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Ultimate Blasphemy
I have a new hero:Sebastian Castellio,who wrote,at the height of the Reformation,that to kill another in the name of Godis the ultimate blasphemy. Meanwhile,Reformers (Luther, Calvin, etc.)and Catholicshurled their toys about Europelike spoiled children storming through the nursery,throwing murderous tantrums,slaughtering… Continue reading
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The Central, Sacred Question
"At the center of your life," she said,"is a central, sacred questionThat question guides everything you do,your goals, your relationship…everything." "But what is the question?"he asked. "That's just it," she said."It's different for each of us.Some state it without hesitation;others… Continue reading
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On the Sixth Day of Christmas
If he's just arrived,isn't this when he needs us most–this neonate, this babe,so fragile, so absolutely dependent? Shouldn't we get the place ready,clean things up a bit,replace alienation with reconciliation,suspicion with trust,and greed with grace? He came in 2009,and we… Continue reading
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Aurify the World
This very dayall the forces of heaven and earthalign within youto aurify the world.You are their holy verge, their sacred scepter. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading