Two audio notes this week: There's a silent gap for several seconds at minute 20, but hang tight! It comes right back! Megan's audio during the prayer goes in and out. You can read the full text here: From The Lives We Actually Have, by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie "For when this pain doesn't make sense" God, I'm fumbling around for answers, reasons, meaning.I can't find any purpose in this pain.Why me?Why them?Why now?I don't know when this is going to get better.Or if I will ever feel relief.God, make this pain matter... at least to you.See me in my fragility.Give me a reminder of your presence.Reach for me,for I am too weary to reach for you.Blessed are we who need to be remindedthat there are some things we can fix ... and some things we can't.Blessed are we who can say:My life isn't always getting better.Right in the midst of the pain and fear and uncertainty, may we hunt for beauty and meaning and truth... together.Not to erase the pain or solve the pain (though surely that would be nice),but to remind us that beauty and sorrow coexist.And that doesn't mean we're broken or have been forgotten.God is here, and we are never-were never and will never be-alone.In our hope. In our disappointment. In our joy. In our pain.God, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Spirit, have mercy. Amen. Our texts this week are here  Our prayer this week is from The Lives We Actually Have Alicia’s Ash Wednesday playlist and Lent playlist Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount   Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music. 

SHOW NOTES  Our texts this week are here  Our prayer this week is from The Lives We Actually Have Alicia’s Ash Wednesday playlist and Lent playlist Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount   Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music. 

SHOW NOTES  Our texts this week are here  Our prayer this week:  “A Travel Blessing” from Common Prayer: Pocket Edition  “Epiphany Prayer” from Thin Places Everywhere: 12 Days of Christmas with Celtic Christianity. Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount   Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music. Epiphany episode from Year C Alicia’s prayer for peace  Kelly Latimore Icons

SHOW NOTES  Our texts this week are here  Our prayer this week: “There is a time to be born and it is now” – Awed To Heaven, Rooted In Earth by Walter Brueggemann  “Christmas is for the brokenhearted.” - Chuck Summers  “Every Valley (It’s Hard To Wait)” by Rain for Roots  “How To Keep TIme” - podcast from The Atlantic Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman  Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount   Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.

SHOW NOTES  Our texts this week are here  Our prayer this week: “A Liturgy For Those Waiting For A Dream To Come True” - Liturgies For Hope  Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount   Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music. “Light the candle anyway.” – Sarah Bessey   “God didn’t show me the whole path, God gave me a flashlight, to see one step ahead of me.” – Sister Helen Prejean 

SHOW NOTES  Our texts this week are here  Our prayer this week: “Blessing to Summon Rejoicing” by Jan Richardson from Circle of Grace “In Death Valley, A Rare Lake Comes Alive” New York Times  Inciting Joy, by Ross Gay Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount   Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.

SHOW NOTES  Our texts this week are here  Our prayer this week: “For the Interim TIme” - To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donohue …. “For Those Who Bear Witness” - The Lives We Actually Have by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie  “Jesus is what God has to say” - Brian Zahnd, Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount   Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music. Alicia’s advent playlist and Matt’s EP 

SHOW NOTES  Our texts this week are here  Our prayer this week: “Blessing When the World is Ending,” Jan Richardson from Circle of Grace Alicia’s Advent playlist and Matt’s Advent EP  Alicia mentioned Kintsugi pottery. Learn more about the beauty in the art of repair.  Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount   Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music. 

SHOW NOTES  Our texts this week are here  Our prayer this week: Feminist Prayers For My Daughter “For a Faith Community”  Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount   Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.  We’ll be back for the first week of Advent– reading through the Psalms! 

SHOW NOTES  Our texts this week are here  Our prayer this week is from The Lives We Actually Have – “Collective Grief” (p 74-75) Alicia mentions Dr. Mekel Harris’s Instagram account. Check out her full website here.   Megan mentions Jan Richardson’s book, The Cure for Sorrow Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount   Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.