My Life
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Protected: Do You Want To Be Healed? Part III
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post. Continue reading
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Fall and the Coming Renewal (5)
Every year around this time I move from hating (but tolerating) the summer sun and heat to actively hating it. The reason for this (I surmise) is that this is the time of the year when school restarts, and it seems monstrous to me to have school starting while it is summer outside! In any Continue reading
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Never Forget
I was 11 years old and in the sixth grade. I heard the news at school but didn’t really understand. Kids kept being picked up by worried parents; rumors flew that Houston would be next. I got home that afternoon and sat in front of CNN until my parents got home while watching the planes–the footage Continue reading
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Fall and the Coming Renewal (4)
Every year around this time I move from hating (but tolerating) the summer sun and heat to actively hating it. The reason for this (I surmise) is that this is the time of the year when school restarts, and it seems monstrous to me to have school starting while it is summer outside! In any Continue reading
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Benedictine Spirituality: Work, Prayer, and Study
Back in late September I went on a three-day retreat to St. Gregory’s Abbey in Michigan. St. Gregory’s is a Benedictine community of male vowed religious from within the Episcopal Church. There are currently seven monks living in the community, and of the seven four are priests. I went on this retreat with a lot Continue reading
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Fall and the Coming Renewal (3)
Every year around this time I move from hating (but tolerating) the summer sun and heat to actively hating it. The reason for this (I surmise) is that this is the time of the year when school restarts, and it seems monstrous to me to have school starting while it is summer outside! In any Continue reading
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OCD and Me: Some Explanations and Reflections
My goal as a blogger is to write one long-form article for the blog each month. Occasionally, I will also post quotes I find valuable or share poems I have written. As you are no doubt aware, I failed to post anything in May (or June; technically this post counts for June since I started Continue reading
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The Practice of Simplicity
In just a few short weeks I will be on summer break. Hands down, one of my favorite things about being a teacher is the time off. I will have twelve weeks this summer that I can dedicate to time with family, friends, and my own personal pursuits. Last summer, only nine days before we Continue reading
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How Rote Worship and Ritualistic Prayer Saved my Faith
A common attitude that I encounter in the low-church Evangelical subculture in which I am immersed is that real prayer or worship requires an authenticity rooted in coming to God “just as we are.” This is usually defined in opposition to more ritualistic prayer/worship praxes which are simply “dead religion.” Tellingly, it is not uncommon Continue reading
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Art and the Naked Body
I have been upfront on this blog about how my pornographic past, along with the purity culture of which I was a part, warped my sexuality in ways that are still damaging. Of the various effects my past has had on me, one is that it has so warped my desires that I have had Continue reading
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The Virtuous Life: Benedictine Spirituality
Every few weeks or so I find myself chanting Vespers with an eclectic group (mostly mainline Protestants, but also a Catholic or two) of Christians. After we chant the evening office, we practice lectio divina, have a discussion of the Scriptures and a spiritual formation text, and then return to the oratory to chant Compline Continue reading
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A Candle in the Dark: My Spiritual Practices
I am what psychologist Richard Beck calls a “winter Christian.” By that I mean that my relationship with God largely centers around my struggle to make sense of the crap in the world. I am not a critic of God or of the Church or of the Faith, but I am sensitive to shallowness and Continue reading
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Fall and Coming Renewal (2)
This is my annual post about how I hate the summer and love the fall. This year, I just updated to reflect my current context a post I had written on this topic two years ago. You can read the rest of the posts in this genre here, here, and here. * * * In the book Continue reading
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Anxiety and Sin
The anxiety has returned. It’s not like it was–I want to be clear about that. But it is bad. Worse than it has been since Ellie was born. I never know what to do with all of this, you know? I never really know what to do with the fact that my mind doesn’t obey Continue reading
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A Summer Sabbatical (of sorts)
Officially, my last day of work before the summer vacation is Wednesday, but I expect to be done with everything tomorrow. One of the perks of being a teacher is having summers off, though they aren’t as long as they used to be! This summer break, the first summer after Catherine’s birth and after moving Continue reading
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Spring Cleaning my Heart: Ditching my Smartphone for the Sanctified Life
We are about the enter the fourth week of Easter (I’ve taken to seeing time liturgically rather than secularly; it helps with my spiritual condition) and I am already tired of the alleluias. I’ve probably said this before, but I feel way more comfortable with Advent than Christmas, with Lent than Easter. I just think Continue reading
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A Letter To my Wife
Dear Amanda, I’ve spent the last 37 weeks watching you grow as Catherine grows within you. I’ve watched as your body has changed, as your mother-hips have taken on this second child. I’ve watched as you’ve turned inward, as you’ve felt Catherine moving and kicking–the quickening, the ancients called it. I’ve watched as you’ve gracefully Continue reading
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Modifying my Habits in 2016
New Year’s Day is probably the holiday that I celebrate the least. I don’t celebrate Halloween really, but I usually do get a pumpkin. But New Year’s, especially this year when it fell on a Friday, just sort of rolled into my weekend. I think one reason I don’t really care about New Year’s is Continue reading
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Why I am not a Roman Catholic
***THIS POST HAS BEEN SUPERSEDED BY THIS ONE*** ***I initially tried harmonizing this post with my change of mind in Spring of 2021, but gave up the effort*** Part 1: Narrative I’ve been asked at least a few times in recent years why I’m not a Roman Catholic. The question usually follows me explaining my embrace of Continue reading
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A Guide for My Journey Home
I was probably (spiritually speaking) at my lowest point around January of 2013. That was a couple of years after I used critical theory, biblical scholarship, and postmodern philosophy to critique the fundamentalism of my own personal religious beliefs. About two years in, I began to realize that I had arrived at the logical conclusion Continue reading
About Me
Gregory C. Jeffers
Anglican Christian | Husband | Father | Teacher | Scholar | Poet
G. C. Jeffers 