There are stories a pastor carries that he dares not tell. They’re not about the war in the […]
Category Archive: Donavon Riley
The temple was full. It was full in Jeremiah’s day, and full when Jesus stepped through its gates. […]
In the age of platforms and protocols, the Church is tempted to forget she has a soul. Power […]
It didn’t come with tanks or boots. It came with grins and glitter, with hashtags and flags and […]
They’ll sell you a mattress on Memorial Day. They’ll knock a hundred dollars off a sofa or throw […]
There are days I wake and feel like the last sane man in a house on fire, and […]
Easter is not only a morning in spring. It is a Lá Beannaithe—a blessed day—in the oldest and […]
The stone was too heavy. That’s what they thought. The women went early, hearts dragging behind them like […]
The tree was ready long before the nails were forged. It stood waiting through the winter, bare-limbed and […]
Not silver, not linen, not meat roasted on the fire, but bread, torn from its loaf like flesh […]
In the old tongue, they didn’t say, “I am anxious.” They said, “Tá imní orm”—“The anxiety is on […]
There was a time, not long ago, when you could step inside almost any church—big or small, rural […]
The old missal still rests where it always has, its spine cracked, its pages furred with damp, curling […]
A Madrašâ for Ash Wednesday based on Joel 21.Blow the siren, let the streets go silent,Let the town […]
Work it with sweat long enough and you’ll discover that there’s a certain stubbornness in the land, in […]
The frail light settles in the meeting place where our knowing ends, and the unmeasured begins. Mystery, they […]
Virginity, once a symbol of spiritual purity and divine offering, has been reduced in modern eyes to a […]
The calendar turns with a hollow cheer, a flurry of fireworks dissolving into smoke. “New year, new me,” […]
To one who said that myths were lies and therefore worthless, even though ‘breathed through silver.’ — J.R.R. […]
We find ourselves here just before the year turns and before the Christ-child arrives. Here, the shadows are […]