I hope you can join me for the Midweek Pause, which will be our last for a while as I am heading to Denver soon to begin an internship with the Chaplains Service for the University of Colorado Hospital.

I have something I’m excited to share with you, a meditative writing practice called the Collect. The collect (pronounced COLL-ect) is a short, five-line prayer form that dates back to the Middle Ages.

I’ve just said two things that that I fear may scare you away. First, about the writing practice: we will be using a simple and accessible form, and you need have no writing experience whatsoever to participate. You will have a chance to share, but no one needs to. This can be a very private practice.

Second, about the prayer part: I know that some of you find great solace in religion and others have been bruised by it. Prayer can be deeply religious and it can also be secular, a way to voice one’s hopes for the world. As the brilliant Irish poet, theologian and peace activist Pádraig Ó Tuama has said, there are days he is not sure that he believes in God, but he never doubts that he believes in prayer.

I will let Pádraig Ó Tuama introduce the form through a delightful video and then we will write our own collects. There will be a natural exit point at 1:30 as always. If you have the time, I invite you to stay a bit longer than usual so we can write and enjoy each others’ writing at leisure (and to reiterate: there will be NO pressure to share; you can just sit back and enjoy.) We will plan to wrap up by around 2:15 and of course you can leave at any time.

I hope to see you for this beautiful practice.