Seth Haines's Blog, page 2

Creating Lent (What is the Work of Your Hands?)

Lent: The penitential season where we move (with great intention) from our gorged, swollen, addicted state to something more Divine. At least, that’s the hope. But is Lent all about fasting and prayers and saying holy things on the internet to garner attention?

Dear God, I hope not.

We are created in the image of a Creator, at least the ancient books says so. If this is true, and if Lent is a journey to connecting with the grace of our originally created state, shouldn’t Lent include some act of c...

Why Am I Distracted in Prayer? (A Lenten Question)

Ash Wednesday is here, and so, I began the discipline of learning to pray the Morning Prayers of the Divine Office. For the unacquainted, the Daily Office is a way of praying through the Psalms (and selected scriptures) at certain hours of the day, which is why it is sometimes called “The Liturgy of the Hours.”

As I worked my way through the Psalms, my mind wandered, fickle as it is. Some small phrase reminded me of Eliot’s poem “Ash Wednesday,” which of course reminded me of the references to Da...

Can You Set Lenten Goals? (You bet.)

Fat Tuesday. Mardi Gras. The last day to consume all the booze, beads, sugar, sex—whatever—in preparation for a forty day fast. (This is my Louisiana blood talking.) This binge before the purge is, of course, not the most spiritually actualized approach to the final day of Ordinary Time. Still, human as we are, a good lot of us will go out with a consumptive bang, an experience of the grand Whizz Bang you’ve all come to know and love.

This year, I have decided to take a bit of a different course...

The Quieter Spaces (Lent 2021 Preview)

I write about many things: sobriety; spirituality; life examination; a layman’s take on politics; photography; the craft of writing. If you’ve been following my writing over the years, you’ve suffered my eclectic bag of words. Thank you.

We’re moving into Lent, a season in which I’m bound to write about silent spirituality and the search for quiet wisdom. That is, after all, what Lent has come to mean to me. It is a time to reflect on my own brashness, my penchant toward noise, my duplicity (whi...

The End of Insanity? From One President to the Next.

January 20, 2021. It’s a new day.

I watched as the former president left the White House and made his way to a send off ceremony at Joint Base Andrews featuring Journey’s song “Don’t Stop Believing”, a thin military band rendition of “Hail to the Chief”, and an extravagant 21-gun salute. I listened to his remarks, a recasting of Trump’s Greatest Hits. I watched as he climbed the stairs to Airforce One for the last time and waived goodbye.

Then, I took a deep breath.

I have not hidden my feelings...

The 2020 Good Stuff List

Yesterday, I shared a certainty: the dawn of 2021 will not erase the pall of 2020. It’s a sentiment that may ring hopeless, until you remember that good, beautiful, and true things often cut through the clouds of 2020. And so, I invited you to create a Good Stuff list. Did you?

Today, I’m sharing my Good Stuff list, a recounting of the events, art, people, and places that made 2020 worth remembering.

The Good Stuff

1. I released my latest book, The Book of Waking Up: Experiencing the Divine Lov...

A 2021 Prediction: The Coming Chaos and an Antidote for it.

Recap: a new, more virulent strain of coronavirus is burning through Brits; COVID cases in the United States are expanding by the day; government and corporate servers in the United States were hacked by some foreign entity; the allegations of voter fraud have led a former (and pardoned general) to toss around the idea of implementing martial law; and, the tax relief bill includes a “three martini lunch” provision for corporate executives. And this is just the news from the last five days.

We se...

Five Photos Proving Beauty is Bigger Than #2020

In the waning weeks of 2020, the Great White North came to visit. In my almost-southern hometown, the magnolias and bamboo bowed low, showing deference to the weight of a year. 2020: It’s been heavy.

Before the snow came, I sat in our local adoration chapel, a thi...

Recording Your Advent (A sort of Holiday Examen)

I have written two spiritual books—a memoir about booze and finding God and a work of nonfiction about detachment from the stuff of earth and attachment to the Divine. I worked those words out in quiet, creative spaces, spaces where I did my best to silence the noise of the world and wake to music that is both human and Divine. I tried to translate that music, put it to words. And truth be told, that’s why I keep coming to the page. I believe the dance between the human and the Divine ought to ...

Come Advent With Me (With Four Adventish Resources)

We’ve entered yet another Advent, a time to prepare for the contrast of coming light against the shadows of the world. This year is perhaps the shadowiest year of my four decades of living, and it begs for the coming of the Christmas light, which is to say, it begs for Advent.

Advent—the 26 days preceding Christmas—is a time of preparation, reflection, and setting our hearts on the Magi's journey. It's a time to wake from the things that lull you to sleep, to open your eyes to the sun rising in ...