Monica A. Coleman's Blog, page 11

10 ways you can pray for mental illness

10 ways you can pray for mental illness

Today is the National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding. People often ask me how they can pray for people who live with mental health challenges. I like prayer. I pray. I’m a minister who often prays for other people. I believe that God can change our hearts and our lives through our attention and focus on God and others. My colleague Susan Gregg-Schroeder has some excellent resources for prayers and liturgies at Mental Health M...

Trayvon Martin: a Case Study for Church Response to Mental Illness

Trayvon Martin

I was instantly nauseous. My stomach turned in knots and I doubled over. I collapsed into my seat and held to the edges.

I became sick. Literally.

This was my response to hearing the news of the verdict in the trial against George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin.

In the hours and days that followed, my African American friends and I expressed similar feelings: paralysis, anxiety, despair, outrage. From the rallies immediately following the verdict to the varied posts in...

Lenten Reading Group

Lent is one of my favorite seasons in the traditional Christian calendar.In early Christian communities, new converts to Christianity were often baptized on Easter Day. Lent was the 40-day season before Easter when they learned more about their faith and faith communities.

Like many people, I have often thought of Lent as a time to give something up – like chocolate. The idea of sacrifice or giving something up helps us to let go of things that may stand between us and a closer relationship to...

Birthing: an Advent Reflection

The final article in my four-part series on Advent from the perspective of pregnancy. As I think about Christmas and the birth of Jesus, I can’t help but to think about the process of giving birth. Here I reflect on both spiritual and physical birth as I try to imagine Mary’s experience with Jesus.

Birth is messy and unpredictable. And yet this is the message of the gospel. That we cannot predict who or how God will call us be in the world. And we don’t know how things will end.

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