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Deepening our Christianity

Each newsletter includes a short reflection for the week to come, articles published the previous week, a short curated list of content that was meaningful to me the previous week, and more. Subscribe today!

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Faith is a Gift • Deepening our Christianity #33

Deepening our Christianity the Monday Newsletter of Paul Prins Edition #33 · 17 June 2024 Blessings Reader, Faith is a Gift Our faith simply exists. It just, is. As a Christian, there are many things for me to do. I am to take up my cross and follow Jesus. I am to love, and to be gracious. Yet, the gift of faith has no expectations for me. Faith, for many of us, is the first invitation we accept from Jesus. We accept the gift that is given to us. This gift that is beyond description. We are...

Deepening our Christianity the Monday Newsletter of Paul Prins Edition #32 · 10 June 2024 Blessings Reader, Jordan and I are heading to the States for a couple weeks. If you are around it would be fun to see you. I'm preaching next Sunday in the Twin Cities at Meetinghouse Church, and there are two other events below you are invited too. Let me know if you're around! Acceptance and Silence Last Sunday we had our monthly online gathering of Urban Monastics. The format is pretty simple. We pray...

Deepening our Christianity the Monday Tuesday Newsletter of Paul Prins Edition #31 · 4 June 2024 Blessings Reader, It has been nearly 3 months since the last newsletter. In that time, I have finished refining the Urban Monastic way of life, and we have been working hard on planning and promoting our very first Urban Monastic retreat. This has been a lot of writing, and I didn't feel I had the capacity to write this each week. Now with the 28 chapters of the rule off to be edited, I'm back!...

Deepening our Christianity the Monday Newsletter of Paul Prins Edition #30 · 11 March 2024 Blessings Reader, Reflecting on Blessings "May the Lord bless you and keep you, may His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May His face turn toward you and bring you peace."Numbers 6:24-25 The Lord is generous to us. His grace, mercy, and love are lavished upon us in a way that breaks part of me as I try to comprehend it. It breaks me in such a beautiful way as I understand the places in my...

Deepening our Christianity the Monday Newsletter of Paul Prins Edition #29 · 4 March 2024 Blessings Reader, What is Hard to See Our sight is one of our strongest senses. We can often see things far before we can hear or smell them. Touching and tasting are deeply intimate in comparison to sight. There is proximity needed to touch and feel. Taste needs even more. We need it to enter our bodies for that sense to work. Sight is the sense that most often introduces and defines our world. It is...

Deepening our Christianity the Monday Newsletter of Paul Prins Edition #28 · 26 February 2024 Blessings Reader, Following your Love There is much talk in the Gospels about following Jesus. He explicitly tells us to take up our cross and follow Him. This is such a visual and physical first response. We know the story, and we know what happens Easter weekend. Jesus literally and physically takes up His cross, carries it to the top of Calvary, and is crucified upon it by the Romans. This brings...

Deepening our Christianity the Monday Newsletter of Paul Prins Edition #27 · 19 February 2024 Blessings Reader, Choose to Love Love is many things. Each one of us knows many kinds of love. Each is love, and each is deeply meaningful. We might say that we love a favorite book, film, or TV show. We might also say that we love our friends or family members. Those of us who are married, hopefully, say that we love our spouse. It is immense the ways and depths we experience love. Rather than...

Deepening our Christianity the Monday Newsletter of Paul Prins Edition #26 · 12 February 2024 Blessings Reader, A Failure of Orthodoxy For most of the last century, the western Protestant Church embarked on a grand project. It was rooted in their vision of reformation. That project was based on the belief that the right knowledge results in the right action. Within the walls of our churches, we have believed that knowing leads to wisdom. Wisdom that would inform our being in the midst of a...

Deepening our Christianity the Monday Newsletter of Paul Prins Edition #25 · 5 February 2024 Blessings Reader, No Start or End to Love Oh, beloved, I don't know what to say. That fear that creeps into your bones. It finds its way deep into the sinew and marrow. There, it slowly drips its vile poison over your hope. It can so easily glaze over your sight. Those equally beloved, through this haze, become others. Let us resist. Let us trust in love. In a love that comes with its blistering...

Deepening our Christianity the Monday Newsletter of Paul Prins Edition #24 · 22 January 2024 Blessings Reader, A Parisian Cold Snap For over a week, it has been below freezing here in Paris. It has felt quite brisk and cold outside. This shift in weather has been unusually cool and long, based on our last 8 years in the city. The climate here is much more temperate than my childhood in Minneapolis, where it was common to stay below freezing for the majority of the winter, and often have weeks...