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A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing
https://bookstore.upperroom.org/Products/1921/a-family-like-mine.aspxWhom Shall I Fear: Urgent Questions for Christians in an Age of Violence
https://www.amazon.com/Whom-Shall-Fear-Questions-Christians/dp/0835819671-
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Author Archives: Rosalind C Hughes
Thursday 2020: Betrayal
“One of you,” he said, “will betray me,” and each of them immediately beset his soul with cross-examination, face afire with a thousand slights, deft denials and sleight of conscience, self-deception well practised since the first temptation in the Garden … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer
Tagged confession, Holy Week, Mark 14:12-25, Maundy Thursday
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Wednesday 2020: Cornerstone
Look for the cornerstone, smutted and mossed, every so often sandblasted clean, surprising anew; not the one five blocks up with date and name, but below, at ground level, hefting the weight of the world, unnoticed for the most part, … Continue reading
Posted in current events, holy days, lectionary reflection, story
Tagged COVID-19, Holy Week, Mark 12:1-11
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Tuesday 2020: By whose authority?
One asks, Is it politic? One asks, Will it profit a man? One asks, Is it legal? One asks, Is it ethical? One asks, Is it even practical? One asks, Is it possible? One asks, Is it blasphemy; if so, … Continue reading
Posted in current events, holy days, lectionary reflection, poetry
Tagged COVID-19, Holy Week, Mark 11:27-33
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Monday 2020: Cleansing the temple
Monday morning: disinfecting doorknobs, disaffecting traders, tilting tables to wipe them down, zealously sanitizing sacred space, swiping between compassion and contempt; mask slipping, brow sweating, having tested positive for mortality Also from Monday’s Daily Office readings: How lonely sits the … Continue reading
Posted in current events, holy days, lectionary reflection, poetry
Tagged cleansing the temple, COVID19, Holy Week
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Palm Sunday 2020
After the psalms have died away and the palm leaves dry and brittle in the dust have crumbled underfoot; after the streets have emptied, crowds drained through doorways, their thunder spent, a stone heart whispers still, Hosanna: saviour, save us.
Posted in current events, holy days, poetry, prayer
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Ostriches and jackals
(This Lenten meditation for the daily series from the Diocese of Ohio was composed before our part of the world was turned upside down by COVID-19; but God’s mercy endures forever.) Continue reading
Mushroom
Early in the morning, we would wipe our hands with grassy dew, gather field mushrooms sprung up overnight; only the wise old wives knew whether their white canopies shed spores of health, or of the other thing. Featured image: Scottish … Continue reading
The question of Lazarus
“Tell me, mortal,
can these dry bones live?”
Lazarus, coughing and blinking
replies, or would
if breath permits, Continue reading
Chasing clouds
Not as children naming
animals in a fluffy sky; nor yet
storm chasers, seeking secrets
funnelled from heaven to earth; more
refugees from understanding,
lost in bewilderment, following
clouds across the wilderness
desert dry-mouthed – Continue reading
Posted in current events, holy days, lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer
Tagged coronavirus, Daily Office, Easter Vigil, Exodus 13:20-22, pandemic, Psalm 97:1-5
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Why did this happen?
When Jesus and his disciples come across a blind man begging, the disciples ask a question that the sages have answered in various ways throughout the ages: why is there suffering in the world? Why do even the unarguably innocent – babies and children – suffer? Why do we live with these questions from birth and throughout our lives, even in the midst of joy, even in the midst of love, even with Jesus walking right next to us? Continue reading
Posted in current events, sermon, story
Tagged coronavirus, COVID-19, John 9:1-41, Lent, pandemic, Psalm 23, suffering, theodicy
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over the water 