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Category Archives: Advent Meditations
Solstice
This poem first appeared at Bearings Online, a publication of the Collegeville Institute, at last year’s winter solstice Solstice At the abyss of the yearthe sun is silent;but in the bleak midwintersomething shiftsA fearful hope, homunculus,wakes the woman: lightbeyond the … Continue reading
Posted in Advent Meditations, Holy Days, poetry, prayer
Tagged Collegeville Institute, nativity, solstice
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Complicity with God
A sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent at the Church of the Epiphany, Euclid, Ohio The fourth Sunday of Advent is one of my favourites of the church year. The apocalyptic visions and prophetic warnings have given way to … Continue reading
Posted in Advent Meditations
Tagged Hubert Hastings Parry, Magnificat. Year B Advent 4
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Christmas is coming
“Christmas is coming” meant that somebody was running out of patience, out of breath like a woman in labour; like a baby in the birth canal, out of options to retreat; as though, if one didn’t pay attention to the tone of a mother’s exasperation, pregnant and impending, one day it would be too late. Continue reading
Among you
“Among you stands one whom you do not know,” said John, and if you knew, if you were to turn and recognize the Christ among you, the anointed one, then the Holy Spirit would be unleashed upon you in that cataclasm of time and eternity and you would have no need to turn from God to speak to one another because you would see the love of God, the spark of Divine breath, the image of God through it all. Continue reading
Magnificat
Her wisdom undoes arrogance,
the thrones of power are dust underfoot.
My God, my spirit sings your praise;
my soul sings out your holy Name. Continue reading
Posted in Advent Meditations, poetry, prayer
Tagged Divine pronouns, Hubert Hastings Parry, Jerusalem, Maginificat, Mary, pandemic, Spanish influenza
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Comfort; comfort my people
The good news of Jesus Christ begins with a voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way, make straight the paths.” The straight and clear way to prepare love this Christmas is to stay at home. Continue reading
Posted in Advent Meditations, sermon
Tagged 2 Peter 3:8-15, Advent 2 Year B, Christmas, COVID-19, Isaiah 40:1-11, St Nicolas
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Advent snowfall
Snow: slowrelentless coveringsharp corners disguising thin ice with deep pilesuffocating beauty: eachfractal shrugging off the image of its neighbour endless variations ona theme devised before danger delivered into the world under the shadow of life
Dreamers
On the night before Jesus died, his closest friend denied three times that he even knew the man. In the nights before Jesus was born, Joseph dreamed. Would we be ready to stake our reputation on the acknowledgement that yes, Jesus is the Son of God; that yes, the way of the Cross, the way of self-giving, selfless, vengeance-denying love is the way to life, liberty, and the pursuit of heaven; that yes, Jesus, born of Mary, is God Incarnate, Emmanuel, God with us? Continue reading
Posted in Advent Meditations, Holy Days, lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged Advent, Incarnation, Joseph, Virgin birth
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Be patient
When our children were small and there were too many things to do with the two hands that I have, one of the children, wise and observant, noticed that often their requests were met with the same, repeated phrase. I realized this one day when they asked me, “for a drink, now please, and not in a minute.”
Be patient, beloved. Continue reading
