https://pickerill.casa/comfortable-words/enChristianity© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerillhttps://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/9647eef879b12561a743f9cb992f9f33.jpghttps://pickerill.casa/comfortable-words/Sun, 20 Sep 2026 09:19:51 +0000Eric and Julia PickerillEric Pickerillpodcast@pickerill.casaThe Comfortable Words is a space to slow down and allow the words and way of Jesus to comfort us, strengthen us, and reorient us to the care and keeping of Christ. The phrase comes from Thomas Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer. Cranmer's "comfortable"...false346ea5a5-4d50-5393-a4e2-fb73268d9443episodichttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/hidden-in-the-field--75246716
From Matthew 13:44-46, 52.

Includes brief quotations from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship and C. S. Lewis's The Weight of Glory.

The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/75246716Sun, 20 Sep 2026 09:01:52 +0000Eric and Julia PickerillThe Smithsonian holds 155 million objects. About one percent is ever on view. Eric has spent this year inside a folder like that: his mother-in-law's portfolio of passports, birth certificates, and a wartime escape from Lithuania that nobody in the...
From Matthew 13:44-46, 52.

Includes brief quotations from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship and C. S. Lewis's The Weight of Glory.

The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>919falsefullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/nobody-knows-but-jesus--75090709
Includes brief quotations from C. S. Lewis's 1948 essay on living under threat of the atomic bomb, and from Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea (1955).

The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/75090709Sun, 13 Sep 2026 09:01:59 +0000Eric and Julia PickerillJulia reflects on Jesus' parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13:24-30), sown together in the same field and left to grow until the harvest. Rather than reading the weeds as other people, she turns the parable inward: the roots of pride,...
Includes brief quotations from C. S. Lewis's 1948 essay on living under threat of the atomic bomb, and from Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea (1955).

The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>929falsefullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/remain-in-my-love--74929240
The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74929240Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:01:47 +0000Eric and Julia PickerillJulia reflects on Jesus' words to his disciples on the night before his death: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love" (John 15:9). She distinguishes discomfort — the ache of a comfort once known and now lost — from...
The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>940berry,comfortable,george,macdonald,wendell,wordsfalsefullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/singing-without-words--74751009
The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74751009Sun, 30 Aug 2026 09:02:00 +0000Eric and Julia PickerillEric reflects on Jesus' cry from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46), and discovers it isn't a line Jesus composed himself, but the opening words of Psalm 22. Drawing on a UK pastor who leads prisoners in writing...
The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>979bonhoeffer,brueggemann,christian,comfortable,contemplative,dementia,devotional,eric,julia,lament,memory,music,pickerill,prayer,psalms,spiritual,wordsfalsefullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/not-my-will-but-yours--74556020
The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74556020Sun, 23 Aug 2026 09:09:27 +0000Eric and Julia PickerillJulia turns to the Garden of Gethsemane and the most uncomfortable hours of Jesus' life, where comfort shows up in an entirely upside-down way. Drawing on Mark's Gospel and W. H. Vanstone's The Stature of Waiting, she traces how Jesus moves from actor...
The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>1100falsefullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/consider-the-birds--73343058
The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/73343058Sun, 16 Aug 2026 09:00:27 +0000Eric and Julia PickerillJulia explores a phrase tucked into the Sermon on the Mount: "The eye is the lamp of the body... if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light" (Matthew 6:22). She traces the Greek word emblepō — to gaze, to look intently — through...
The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>835anxiety,attention,birdsfalsefullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/apocaloptimism--73689218
Eric ran into the feeling twice in one week: once watching a man methodically pick up trash from a roadside ditch that would fill right back up within days, and once catching himself in it, admitting his own uneasy mix of hope and dread while wading into work on artificial intelligence.

Both moments point back to something older than the word, something Jesus's own followers felt watching a man who "went about doing good" end up dead like a failure. The answer isn't optimism. It isn't pessimism either. It's something else.

The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/73689218Sun, 09 Aug 2026 09:04:29 +0000Eric and Julia PickerillThere's a word for wanting to fix a broken world and quietly suspecting it's beyond saving, at the same time. It's not in any dictionary. A documentary made it up this year: apocaloptimism. Eric ran into the feeling twice in one week: once watching a...
Eric ran into the feeling twice in one week: once watching a man methodically pick up trash from a roadside ditch that would fill right back up within days, and once catching himself in it, admitting his own uneasy mix of hope and dread while wading into work on artificial intelligence.

Both moments point back to something older than the word, something Jesus's own followers felt watching a man who "went about doing good" end up dead like a failure. The answer isn't optimism. It isn't pessimism either. It's something else.

The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>942falsefullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/and-when-you-return--73326400
Read the reflection and listen to the audio at https://pickerill.casa/comfortable-words/and-when-you-return


The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/73326400Sun, 02 Aug 2026 09:00:47 +0000Eric and Julia PickerillJulia reflects on Jesus' words to Peter on the night of his betrayal: 'Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.' She explores...
Read the reflection and listen to the audio at https://pickerill.casa/comfortable-words/and-when-you-return


The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>884falsefullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/finding-your-way-home--73167802
Eric's first Comfortable Words: on being harassed and helpless, the temptation to build a shelter in the valley or an altar on the mountain, and Jesus's invitation to keep moving — all the way home.

References the song "Guiding Light" by Foy Vance.

Read along and subscribe: https://pickerill.casa/comfortable-words

The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/73167802Sun, 26 Jul 2026 09:00:29 +0000Eric and Julia PickerillFinding Your Way Home — Matthew 14 Eric's first Comfortable Words: on being harassed and helpless, the temptation to build a shelter in the valley or an altar on the mountain, and Jesus's invitation to keep moving — all the way home. References the...
Eric's first Comfortable Words: on being harassed and helpless, the temptation to build a shelter in the valley or an altar on the mountain, and Jesus's invitation to keep moving — all the way home.

References the song "Guiding Light" by Foy Vance.

Read along and subscribe: https://pickerill.casa/comfortable-words

The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>1075falsefullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/where-is-your-soul--72954801
The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/72954801Mon, 13 Jul 2026 21:19:04 +0000Eric and Julia PickerillJulia introduces "The Comfortable Words," a way to let Jesus' words comfort and strengthen you. She leads a "location exercise" to notice where your soul is right now and to picture your current spiritual landscape. Julia explains the Anglican...
The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill
]]>1226anglican,christianity,comfort,comfortable,contemplative,cranmer,devotional,examen,formation,liturgy,meditation,pickerill,prayer,scripture,stillness,wordsfalse11full