Elsa Anders Cook

  • Prayers for Proper 22B

    Job’s question is the most difficult part of faith.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Job gets it.  Job understands the frustration of not having an answer to this question. But, his wife interrupts.  Curse God and die,… Continue reading

    Prayers for Proper 22B
  • Prayers for Proper 23B

    I can’t think about this man’s question to Jesus about eternal life without thinking of this passage that I recently read in Cole Arthur Riley’s This Here Flesh: I was sitting in McDonald’s wot my first Bible-study leader when I… Continue reading

    Prayers for Proper 23B
  • Blessing What Goes Undone

    There is a chaos that arrives at the end of summer and a new school year begins. Even when I didn’t have children of my own, it was in my body. I expected there to be a huge shift. I… Continue reading

    Blessing What Goes Undone
  • Let’s get cooking

    Most people stumble over the words when it comes to prayer. They get nervous and maybe they should be nervous. It’s hard to say the real truth of the matter whether its in a small gathering around a dinner table… Continue reading

    Let’s get cooking
  • Global Prayers and an Agape Feast for World Communion Sunday

    We imagine our connection to the whole wide world on this particular Sunday where the table has no end. It reaches out of the sanctuary over the edge of town and across the borders of this nation. We share this… Continue reading

    Global Prayers and an Agape Feast for World Communion Sunday
  • Prayers for the Second Sunday of Easter

    These prayers were written after searching long and hard for other prayers. I didn’t want to write my own. I wanted anyone else’s words to magnify my hopes for worship this Sunday but I just couldn’t find what I was… Continue reading

    Prayers for the Second Sunday of Easter
  • Prayer Psalm for Trinity Sunday

    In the United States, there will be a celebration of Memorial Day on the same weekend that the church calendar invites us to reflect on the Holy Trinity. Living overseas in Germany, watching and reading how my country of origin… Continue reading

    Prayer Psalm for Trinity Sunday
  • Self-Guided Retreats to Wander in the Nearby Cities and Forests

    Though I haven’t written much about our adventures through Europe in the past year, my family and I have been busy exploring Europe. We have seen and done a lot in our brief time here and it feels like there… Continue reading

    Self-Guided Retreats to Wander in the Nearby Cities and Forests
  • Resurrection Anytime for Easter Worship Celebrations Anywhere

    Though we are long past the coronatide season of needing to worship anywhere but inside a church building, my family and I are living in Germany where we do not have a church. It’s not that there aren’t churches here.… Continue reading

    Resurrection Anytime for Easter Worship Celebrations Anywhere
  • NEW Downloadable Retreats to Explore the Wonder of Place

    In the middle of Lent, I found myself without my children or my husband in an unfamiliar city in Germany. My mind is often filled with caring for other people and tending to the things that need to be done… Continue reading

    NEW Downloadable Retreats to Explore the Wonder of Place