Cowley Magazine - Challenge
How does God engage with us? This issue of Cowley magazine discovers God’s engagement in places we might not think to look: a childhood stutter; the calling of sickness; the heartbreaking challenge of climate grief. The SSJE Brothers invite us to explore the many ways God that engages us, even – perhaps especially – in the challenges we face.
Selected Articles
“These have indeed been challenging times for all of us, but when we review those challenges calmly, dispassionately, dutifully, we may discover that God’s invitation lies within.”
“Here, at the intersection of pain and hope, we find the place from which we all, like flowers, can turn toward the light.”
“It may sound crazy to say that I am grateful to God for my stutter, but it is true. Looking back at my life, I can see how God has engaged with me through the challenges I faced.”
“As we struggle, we shall become more and more the person God created us to be.”
“The spiritual skill of discernment enables us not only to resist the lure of those voices that would distract and distance us from God, but also to perceive directly God’s engagement with us in the circumstances of our lives as we navigate the many decisions that crop up along our way.”
“What if the awakening of our conscience to profound new layers of the world’s pain is a sign – not of God’s absence, but of the Spirit of God excavating strata of our personhood and our collective attention that we are now called to engage? And what if the path of grief thus sensed could become a sober and conscious choice – claimed and lived, come what may, as the cost of our full becoming?”
“Think about the struggles that you are facing right now. How might you embrace them as the place of God’s engagement with you? How is God calling to you through them?”
The cover of this issue sets up such longing for me. Please open Emery House again soon. Love Br. Luke’s Green and blue picture. Margo