Long Journey Home

Christmas memories

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Dec 17

I was delighted to receive a Christmas memory in response to the request in my last column. It's a lovely story from Liz Hunt of Rockland: “The ...

Stories of my grandfather

By Sarah Reynolds - Oct 28

My grandfather Sydney ― my mother's dad ― was about as irreligious as they come. Not only was he personally agnostic, he was generally skeptical ...

The faith that transforms our lives

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Sep 24

If the life of the spirit is a "long journey home," faith is food for the journey. It is what sustains us and enables us to keep moving forward. ...

Song of the soul

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Sep 03

"The voice is the sound of the soul," said Mimi Bornstein of Camden. She should know: she has two decades of professional experience directing ...

Meetings with the divine

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Aug 27

What is a "religious experience"? The phrase is sometimes used humorously to describe any intense, or intensely pleasurable, experience, as in ...

'Simplify, simplify'

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Aug 13

After six years at the First Baptist Church of Belfast, the Rev. Ken Parker is losing his marbles — literally. He has a jar of the colorful glass ...

Meddling with the Lord's Prayer

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Jul 30

A friend recently said her husband did not like the idea of changing the words of the Lord's Prayer. "The Lord's Prayer is the Lord's Prayer," he ...

A long way from Blowing Rock

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Jul 16

In the last two or three years, Chris McLarty has written hundreds upon hundreds of haiku. She started using the three-line, 17-syllable poetic ...

We follow the sun

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Jul 02

It has been difficult and painful to watch my parents diminish, to see them unable to do and enjoy the things they have always done, even those ...

Wandering to the right place

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Jun 18

Some people know their niche in life almost from the beginning. Most of us have to do at least a little wandering around before we hit on what ...

A nature-inspired prayer of the senses

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Jun 04

A few weeks ago, I went on a weekend retreat at Living Water Spiritual Center in Winslow. The center is run by the Sisters of St. Joseph and hosts ...

Mystery, medicine and grace

By Sarah E. Reynolds - May 21

"Grace," according to Dr. Paul Mazur, "is the ability to tolerate ambiguity." When Mazur's wife, Juliet Baker, retired in 2007, the two moved ...

The good Samaritan and the rich young man

By Sarah E. Reynolds - May 07

Recently I talked to the director of a Christian camp, who said something that has stuck in my head: "Christianity is relational, not religious." ...

A pastor who mingles Orthodox influences with 'sloppy Agape'

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Apr 23

The Rev. Matt McDonald seems excited, almost bubbly, as he shows a visitor around the converted poultry warehouse on Patterson Hill in Belfast ...

'Doubting Thomas,' or 'Trusting Thomas'?

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Apr 09

This coming Sunday, April 11, is the first Sunday after Easter, sometimes known as "Thomas Sunday," because, at least in churches that use the ...

A reminder of life's fragile beauty

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Mar 26

For Bonny Versboncoeur, her work as chaplain of Waldo County Home Health & Hospice is "a very rich reminder for me that each moment is precious." ...

Original sin: Better than perfection?

By Sarah E.Reynolds - Mar 12

I came across a quotation from the 20th-century American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr recently that caught my attention: "Original sin is that ...

Working with wardens a lesson in 'practical compassion'

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Feb 28

When she was growing up, the Rev. Kate Braestrup lived all over the world because her father was a foreign correspondent for the New York Times. ...

A Valentine's Day memory

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Feb 14

Last year around this time, my mother died. On Valentine's Day, actually. She had been in the hospital and then a nursing and rehab center for ...

Learning to 'just be with questions'

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Jan 31

Diane Onken Kirkman has a gift for trusting her internal wisdom. A couple of decades ago, she and her husband, Scott, were looking for a small ...

How about a spiritual potluck?

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Jan 17

I had a rather blah Christmas, for several reasons. One was that we went on vacation for a week in the middle of December, which meant my shopping ...

Piecing together a spirituality that sustains

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Jan 03

Growing up in a suburb of Baltimore, Jean Goldfine encountered two very different religious traditions through her parents. Her grandfather on ...

Advent: A time to listen

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Dec 13

"This is the irrational season, when love blooms bright and wild; had Mary been full of reason, there'd have been no room for the child." -- ...

Faith: The value of sharing the journey

By Sarah E. Reynolds - Nov 29

It's not unusual for people who are raised in a faith to stray from it at some point in their lives - often during adolescence or young adulthood. ...