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A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing
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Author Archives: Rosalind C Hughes
Stay (Transfiguration)
Less a trick of the Lightcondensing out of the cloud, each droplet its own world of shapes and shades, ghosts of the martyred, those sidekicks of salvation, dissipating with their breath than the Light of the world condensing creation, ancestors and angels,witnesses and wantons in one bright moment … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, preparing for Sunday with poetry, sermon preparation
Tagged Epiphany, hope, Last Sunday after the Epiphany, light of the world, Luke 9:28-36, Mark 9:2-8, martyrs, MAtthew 17:1-9, Transfiguration, Valley of the shadow of death
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Nor the moon
By night, soothed by darkness those for whom visibility is treacherous stretch out their palms to God who clouds the stars. The waters of creation still bring life from beyond the hills, the hopeful distance Psalm 121
Prayers have been shattered into pieces
Grant that we, putting away all earthly anxieties,
may be duly prepared for the service of thy sanctuary;
we, reaching forth our hands in love. Continue reading
Posted in current events, poetry, prayer
Tagged book of common prayer, Daily Office, found poetry, Lamentations, sanctuary
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Resilience in winter
The trees are running on empty,defenseless, exposed to the faceless elements, burned by the cold and starved by the desiccated air, yet they stand and sway as though they listenedto the songs of the land humming through their roots, branches snapping to the … Continue reading
The baptism of Jesus
Isaiah 42:1-9, Matthew 3:13-17 Jesus’ ministry is bookmarked by humility. From his humble birth and early childhood as a child of refugees, seeking asylum in a foreign land. And here, coming to John for baptism, the Lord of all has … Continue reading
Lenses
I was busy. It wasn’t until late in the day that I finally sat down to prepare a prayer for our meeting. I found one, a good one, except for one word that rang untrue. Do we need to be … Continue reading
Intended
That was the vision in which Joseph placed his faith and his family: that God is with us, God’s promises endure forever. It didn’t make life easier, by any means. God knows it didn’t remove the obstacles of grief and the graft and grimness of the world or the wilderness, its empires, its wars, its little kings.
But what it did mean is that he, Joseph, spent the rest of his days in the close and intimate presence of the love of God among us, Jesus. Continue reading
Posted in current events, holy days, homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
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Wise
By the time you reached the star-struck place
you were ready to crawl in on bended knees
and babble your praises like a newborn;
for the foolishness of God’s incarnation
was wiser than you or I ever could imagine. Continue reading
Christmas Eve 2025
This is the message of Christmas, isn’t it – not so much the drawing in and closing down, the drawing of the curtains against the dark and cold, as it is the opening up; the labour of effacing little by little the things that come between us and keep us from seeing the glory of God incarnate in our neighbours, from realizing the strength and endurance of God’s love, the capacity and tenacity of God’s mercy. When the very heavens are opened for angels to sing to shepherds on the earth, how can we be short of room for one another, friend and stranger, lover and lost, family and fallen alike? Continue reading
over the water 