<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[My Site]]></title><description><![CDATA[My Site]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Wed, 03 Jun 2026 03:10:41 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.earthfireabbey.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Asking the Worthwhile Question]]></title><description><![CDATA[We are living in a time of prophets, in a time of dictators, tyrants, and yes, saints. And it is loud in our heads. It is loud in my head. The din is unsustainable, and yet it is there day after day – sending out messages of obedience, messages of resistance, threats that your politics and your very existence is enough to get you hunted and killed. Churned into the mix of this theatre of hate and absurdity is the filter of AI, omnipresent through our social media interactions, our searches...]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/asking-the-worthwhile-question</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1cb79274254bcae082cd93</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d85f83_6f087c9fe6444252a5e70b1b654258cd~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Holy Week to Mourn]]></title><description><![CDATA[As a pastor I must confess that in this moment I am not sure how to talk about Easter when we are surrounded by crucifixion. I can hear my Christian clergy colleagues firmly remind me that we must have faith and preach the hope of resurrection to make meaning of the executed body of Christ. The ancient Christian pilgrimage tradition of the Stations of the Cross, or the Via Dolorosa contains 14 steps beginning with Jesus being condemned to death and ending with his body being placed in the tomb. ]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/a-holy-week-to-mourn</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1cb6ffd87dcf57d545523b</guid><pubDate>Thu, 23 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d85f83_23ab28fcc7ea4a89ad6eb43a171d874c~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Limitless Belonging: The Hope of Apocalypse]]></title><description><![CDATA[The snowpack has melted into the earth, and the brook winding its course across the abbey, through forest and glen, has been resurrected from the drought of last summer and fall. The flow, burble, and constant rolling of the waters is a familiar comfort on the dark evenings when I stand under a shadow sky listening, simply listening for anything the land has to share.]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/limitless-belonging-the-hope-of-apocalypse</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1cb6b1d87dcf57d545519f</guid><pubDate>Fri, 20 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Ecology of Union]]></title><description><![CDATA[We are told in Genesis that in the beginning the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Do we think that God has stopped – stopped moving upon the face of the waters, stopped moving upon the hills and mountains of the earth, stopped moving through the tree tunnels, and through the sugar sap of those trees? When would God have ever stopped moving upon us all. We were given to the land and gifted an ecology of Union.]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/the-ecology-of-union</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1cb60fd87dcf57d5455039</guid><pubDate>Sun, 18 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d85f83_9952ebcf4daf4a22987a185ea0c96eeb~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_945,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Nothing Holy is Tame]]></title><description><![CDATA[This Gospel stuff is not safe, it’s not meant to be respectable, I tell you it’s not tame. But in the words of Yeshua, “what did you go out to the desert to see?” What else could God breaking into the world have looked like? In Yeshua God creates for us a new memory, a new path, a new way. John sees that path from out in the desert, Yeshua walks that path straight to John. They say a dove descended upon Yeshua at his baptism by John, but I think it was a crow...]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/nothing-holy-is-tame</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1cb55dd87dcf57d5454ec8</guid><pubDate>Sat, 27 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d85f83_3a988856fb5540089d294d8282fd2e87~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Sanctuary as Sacrament]]></title><description><![CDATA[One of the oldest memories of the church is the memory of the church as sanctuary. By my own theological reckoning, one of the most sacred sacraments is that of sanctuary. It may not be an official sacrament, but some things are holy beyond all official bounds. There are times when providing sanctuary is to provide a way for individuals at risk to survive for one more day. There are few actions more sacred that a church can undertake than to open its doors to shelter the people from harm.]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/sanctuary-as-sacrament</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1cb4d0d87dcf57d5454df1</guid><pubDate>Sun, 23 Nov 2025 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d85f83_1ffa3686de97464d9be501eef040eb61~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Comfort in the Darkness]]></title><description><![CDATA[Here we are again, crossing over into the henge-dwelling portal-opening veil-lifting autumn reaching to winter, time of the year. In Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, Samhain marks the New Year when the ever-bursting, blooming, business of life – the seemingly endless promise of always coming forth - finds us at a new dawn, the late dark morning dawn of winter. Now we are reminded that we are the dreams of our ancestors. Samhain, Dios de los Muertos, All Souls, all invite us into ...]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/comfort-in-the-darkness</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1cb4407ab417a19fbeb81b</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d85f83_0cee85da963047bda688b17f7c53b8f6~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Ordinary Mysticism, Extraordinary Love]]></title><description><![CDATA[Beauty, the capacity to seek it and know it, to breathe it in, has never been more important. And by that, I mean the capacity to be struck by the beauty of the absolutely ordinary, and to be rooted in the sacredness of each day, and each night. My own hope lies not in government, or institutions, the academy, or even the church. My hope lies in our innate capacity to experience what Father Pedro Arrupe called a mysticism of open eyes to see more, not less. See the burning in all of creation...]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/ordinary-mysticism-extraordinary-love</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1cb3c7d87dcf57d5454c5c</guid><pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d85f83_e958a324afd64be593813377e1ab4bad~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[God at Our Gate]]></title><description><![CDATA[The gospel of Luke (16:19-31) tells us the story of Lazarus; a poor man covered in sores who lived out his life begging at the gate of a rich man who ignored Lazarus day after day until both of their deaths. The rich man in the story ends up in hell for his failure to extend concern or hospitality toward Lazarus. He ended up in hell because he was blind to the suffering right at his front door. I can’t imagine where the rich man might have ended up if instead of ignoring Lazarus, he rounded up..]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/god-at-our-gate</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1cb33bd87dcf57d5454b98</guid><pubDate>Fri, 01 Aug 2025 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Notes on Collapse]]></title><description><![CDATA[As I look at the multi-crisis, one of the things that gives me hope is that, we can't continue living this way. 



And I mean that literally, we cannot continue living this way. There will be points along the way where collapse makes it impossible, so that we cannot live the same way we have been.  Whether we mean politically, economically, socially, or ecologically. ]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/notes-on-collapse</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1cba8c61de78e3b2135c7d</guid><pubDate>Fri, 01 Aug 2025 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d85f83_0b295c33dc584ea8868ad1574ce5ecd3~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Rev. Mo. Alaina Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[To reckon with scale and things that are true]]></title><description><![CDATA[Let us shift our focus from God’s grand working to a global Western perspective with a 24-hour news cycle that makes everything seem immediate. Our clickbait sound bite culture encourages fragmentation, not integration, thus producing anxiety and alienation. We are all now exposed to the most body breaking, I can’t breathe immediate shattering of pain on a global level, and the truth is, we cannot influence, impact, or change, 99 percent of everything that we are exposed to, but....]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/to-reckon-with-scale-and-things-that-are-true</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1cb2b0d87dcf57d5454ac9</guid><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[No Land for Kings]]></title><description><![CDATA[I cannot help but feel so deeply biblically rooted in this time, and I know truly, there is nothing new under the sun. We find ourselves once again hoping that righteous judges will save us from a would be king, and as always, it is a king of our own making, and we must choose to save ourselves for we were surely warned:]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/no-land-for-kings</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1cb250b1e07a04572fc81c</guid><pubDate>Thu, 19 Jun 2025 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Their Shepherd's Voice]]></title><description><![CDATA[I must make a confession, as a pastor I never appreciated the comparison of clergy to a good shepherd, it felt gross. People aren’t sheep, I thought. We aren’t prey animals in need of another to care for us or make decisions for us. We can think for ourselves and chart our own course. And then I got sheep, and I understood...]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/their-shepherd-s-voice</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1cb1c274254bcae082c33d</guid><pubDate>Fri, 23 May 2025 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d85f83_547f1cd8f04b46bc83a021867767c293~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_768,h_768,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Darkness of Christmas Morn]]></title><description><![CDATA[Blessings upon all of your holiday seasons, be it Hanukkah, Christmas, or the Solstice. I am an observer of the Christ-mass and mark the turning of the year through the Winter Solstice with the fire of a Yule log or two. And while I certainly make merry, it was a more silent contemplative holy day that I sought this year.]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/the-darkness-of-christmas-morn</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1cb111b1e07a04572fc5cc</guid><pubDate>Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d85f83_638d12001da74ae88d154b55bed039cb~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Apocalypse of Politic]]></title><description><![CDATA[We are creatures existing on the brink of transformation, for those of us coming from a Christian tradition, we are called to embrace transformation, to turn around. All Souls, dia de los Muertos, and Samhain, all mark that transitional period when the veil between the departed and our present selves is at its thinnest. ]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/the-apocalypse-of-politic</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1cb07661de78e3b21349b0</guid><pubDate>Fri, 01 Nov 2024 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[God of the Body]]></title><description><![CDATA[After leaving Atlanta and moving to Nashville in 2007, I continued my pastoral work as a street chaplain and outreach worker. Most of my days were spent in homeless encampments, hospitals, and jails. Extreme poverty has a direct impact on the health and life expectancy of those living in the conditions of extreme poverty, as well as putting a target on one’s back. Marking you for removal because the visual manifestation of extreme poverty is offensive to the dominant culture.]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/god-of-the-body</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1caf56b1e07a04572fc28e</guid><pubDate>Fri, 20 Sep 2024 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[God of the Hills]]></title><description><![CDATA[I now live in a valley in Pownal surrounded by Appalachian mountains. In the mornings as I watch the mist roll off the mountains, into our pasture and on to the next ridge, I feel the pull of this haunted place deep in my bones. The first time I stepped foot in the pasture adjacent to my home I swear it shimmered, and in the sacred grove of conifers the ravens and crows tell the stories of all they’ve seen. There could be no finer waters for baptism than the brook back in the woods...]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/god-of-the-hills</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1c9d19b1e07a04572fa01a</guid><pubDate>Fri, 23 Aug 2024 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d85f83_97906cdd81ed4cca865b3a8592ff288a~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Signs]]></title><description><![CDATA[I began the morning in anxious thought. One doesn’t have to read tea leaves or cast bones to see that all signs, historical and immediate, are pointing to the end of our young democracy as we know it. My former home state of Tennessee was recently determined by CNN to be the least democratic state in the country (I can directly attest to the truth of that assertion). A simultaneous study labeled Tennessee the most stressful state in which to live. Nazis, literal neo-Nazis, marched through...]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/signs</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1c9c0fb1e07a04572f9e55</guid><pubDate>Thu, 07 Mar 2024 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d85f83_de7bbe4d4d894db4a7ea3589f4593cc5~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Abbey Argument]]></title><description><![CDATA[An issue we have frequently had while discussing what it is we are doing and planning and preparing for, here at the Abbey, has been a lack of understanding of what an Abbey even is and why we would have chosen this model.

I hope to clear that up a little bit. ]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/the-abbey-argument</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1cbdb67ab417a19fbec980</guid><pubDate>Tue, 30 Jan 2024 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d85f83_8a4bf935b0994420853005209072207a~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Rev. Mo. Alaina Alexander</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Sanctuary of a Shrine]]></title><description><![CDATA[Several weeks ago while driving through North Adams, Mass., my wife and I noticed multiple house shrines. Most were shrines dedicated to Mary, but there were a couple of Jesus shrines scattered in as well. Seeing the shrines, I felt struck and moved by affection and a deep resonance within. She was there in the snow, doing what she always does, watching over her children, regardless of creed.]]></description><link>https://www.earthfireabbey.com/post/the-sanctuary-of-a-shrine</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a1c9a52b1e07a04572f9afb</guid><pubDate>Fri, 19 Jan 2024 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d85f83_f19ceba8e6e74dfe81e632f782518bdb~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Rev. Jeannie Alexander</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>