Tag: Prayer
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On the (Protestant) Recovery of the Rite of Confession
I grew up as a Dutch Reformed protestant, and as such, never participated in an ecclesiastical rite of confession. My parents were also raised Dutch Reformed protestants, and so they didn’t either. And so on back generations upon generations. However, I wonder if we are missing something central in dropping the tradition of confession, not…
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A Close Encounter of the Divine Kind
I remember the first time I attended an Orthodox Divine Liturgy. Walking in the door was almost overwhelming. The lingering scent of incense was unmistakable, and unlike any olfactory experience I’ve ever had at church. And it was equally visually stunning, being surrounded with iconongraphy: saints, cherubim, biblical scenes, and especially Christ and the Theotokos.…
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On Christian Healing and Curing and Christian Rites
This Sunday, one of my churches will be having a healing service as part of our Sunday liturgy. This has become our practice for the third Sunday of the month, and it has become a meaningful practice. Growing up, “healing services” were things that charismatics did when they pushed people over and other strange things…
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Letters to My Son: If Only I Could Bubble Wrap the World
My dear boy, I still remember when you were first born and I would give you a bath in the little sink bathtub that we had. And I would wash your hair, and I’d always panic when my fingers would accidentally touch your soft spot. If ever I would feel it, I would stop, look…
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Letters to My Son on Life and Faith: Introduction
When we were still anticipating my son, I began writing letters to him. I wrote about the progress we were making on his nursery, how excited we were for his arrival, the hopes that we had with him. And then during his first year, I wrote him a letter once a month. My plan was…
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To Be Leaven For the Future
He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’ Matthew 13:33, NRSV The restoration of the church will surely come from a sort of new monasticism which has in common with the old only the…
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The tension of the green season
Sunday begins the long season after Pentecost with the green liturgical color. As a young child, I remember that we called it “the growing season.” Which fits both with the color and with the orientation. We call this season “ordinary time,” that is, there is nothing special. No Christmas, no Easter, no Pentecost. No special…
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One Word for 2015: Wonder
Wonder Few things are more beautiful than to see a person filled with wonder. More often than not it is children that experience this sense of wonder when faced with a world that they are still trying to understand. The capacity to experience wonder is the capacity to be surprised, to be amazed, to understand…
Matthew van Maastricht 