Oh fire of the Holy Spirit, life of the life of every creature, holy are you in giving life to forms... Oh boldest path, penetrating into all places, in the heights, on earth, and in every abyss, you … — Hildegard von Bingen
Ken Sehested
Invocation. “Satan, we're gonna tear / Your kingdom down (Lord, Jesu') / Oh, Satan, we're gonna tear / Your Kingdom down (oh Yes) / You've been building your kingdom / All over the land / Satan, we're gonna tear / Your kingdom down, down (yes).” —“Satan, We’re Gonna’ Tear Your Kingdom Down,” Shirley Caesar and The Young People’s Institutional Choir of Brooklyn
§ § §
Read more ›Ken Sehested
Parade. Palestinian band escorting the Orthodox Patriarch on Palm Sunday from The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
§ § §
Read more ›Ken Sehested
Invocation. “Early morning, April four / Shot rings out in the Memphis sky. / Free at last, they took your life / They could not take your pride. / In the name of love / What more in the name of love.” —“Pride (In the Name of Love),” U2, celebrating the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
§ § §
Read more ›Ken Sehested
Note: I wrote an earlier version of this article (“Dueling spirits are loose in the land: A meditation on the pandemic and the outbreak of political infamy”) in June 2000 when the COVID-19 epidemic wrought infectious fear and trembling, coinciding with the pestilence of President Trump’s first term in office. Some copy has been edited and added in this updated version.
Processional. “Psalm 116: How can I repay the Lord.” —Poor Clares and Pauline Sisters, Lusaka, Zambia
Read more ›Ken Sehested
Text: Philippians 3:17-4:1
Invocation. “Lovers of the world unite / bound to Creator’s vision, bright / that even these our darkest nights / become the light become the light.” — “Hope Beyond All Hope,” Alana Levandoski
§ § §
Read more ›Ken Sehested
The original blessing of God’s delight in Creation echoes through this blessing given by Isaac to his son: "May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine" (Genesis 27:28). Such luscious, material bounty is bound up with and parallels the maintenance of covenant faithfulness with the Heaven’s insistence.
But a fraud is perpetuated by Jacob (suggested by his mother and Isaac’s wife, Rebekah), who disguised himself as his brother Esau, Isaac’s first-born.
Read more ›Ken Sehested
Invocation (on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine). —“A City Under Siege,” in solidarity with Ukraine, composed by Elijah Culp, text from Psalm 31: 21-24
§ § §
Read more ›Ken Sehested
Invocation. “Tempted and tried we're oft made to wonder why it should be thus all the day long / While there are others living about us, never molested, though in the wrong. . . . / Farther along we'll know all about it; farther along we'll understand why / Cheer up, my brother; live in the sunshine, we'll understand it all by and by.” —“Farther Along,” Dolly Parton
§ § §
Read more ›Ken Sehested
Mardi Gras processional. “Jubilee Stomp.” —Tuba Skinny
Ash Wednesday invocation. “When Love Meets Dust” —Alana Levandoski
Read more ›Ken Sehested
Processional. “Ode to Joy” (“Ode an die Freude”). —from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, flashmob performance, orchestra and choir, in a Sabadell, Spain public plaza
Invocation. “Among the tales of sorrow and of ruin that come down to us from the darkness of these days there are yet some in which amid weeping there is joy and under the shadow of death light that endures.” —J.R.R. Tolkien
Read more ›Subscribers receive full access to the entire prayer&politiks site. It’s free. Each week you will receive an automated email with a link to the new edition of the Signs of the Times column. All you provide is you name, email address and city, state or province, and country. This information is never shared with any other party. The only other agreement you make is to receive two solicitation letters per year, one in the spring, the other in the fall. (Which you are free to ignore. Your subscription is still free, and you may “unsubscribe” at any time.) This is our modern begging-bowl. Contributions are our sole source of support.