All rights reserved
© Rosalind C Hughes and over the water, 2011-2026. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Rosalind C Hughes and over the water, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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-
Recent Posts
Archives
Categories
RevGalBlogPals
Meta
Category Archives: holy days
The Friday Feast: Annunciation
We interrupt the Friday Fast series for the Feast of the Annunciation, the story itself of a glorious interruption … Annunciation What strange boldness to announce the Wordto his astonished Mother; Auden had it right,the falling star blitzing its way … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, poetry, prayer
Leave a comment
The Friday Fast: spring snow
Like snow that falls after the daffodils have shown their colours, Friday afternoon slips in at the end of a long, slow week to whisper, “One more fast yet before the Sabbath.”
Ash Wednesday: ice to ashes
Last Saturday, I spent far too much time and energy chipping away at the layer of ice that was left behind after I shovelled the snow. I did it because the sun was out and I knew that if I … Continue reading
Shrive vs shrivel
Write me the script for a new heart, O God;
scratch out a new and shriven,
unshrivelled spirit within me. Continue reading
(Holy Saturday)
How to carry the world’s pain – the cries of the children, the palsy of their great-grandparents confused with the tremors of memory; the subtle, internal turmoil that turns digestion upside down – violence is not a visitor but an … Continue reading
A Song of Anna
What would it sound like, what would it feel like, if we had Anna’s song, too, to sing as our prayers rise like incense at the end of the day? Continue reading
Posted in holy days, poetry, prayer
Tagged Anna, Canticles, Presentation of Christ in the Temple, Song of Simeon
Leave a comment
The gifts of the wise ones
The Feast of the Epiphany is a new year of sorts for us, the people of Epiphany. Who knows what this one will bring. But if we are able to keep our hearts and minds and expectations open; if we deploy the gifts of humility, creativity, faith that the magi, the wise ones have taught us, then we may find unexpected grace, unlooked-for epiphanies, the glory of God waiting for us to stumble upon it as the year takes shape, growing like a child, full of curiosity, wonder, and delight. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged creativity, Epiphany, faith, gifts, humility, magi, three kings, wise men
1 Comment
When worlds collide
Today, while our church celebrates and ruminates on the revelation of Christ to the nations – the arrival of the magi at the manger and their joyful homage to the child they recognized as the saviour of the world – the news cycle is full of analysis, unresolved shock, and grief over what happened and what so nearly happened to our nation a year ago today. Continue reading
Posted in current events, holy days, homily
Tagged Epiphany, insurrection, January 6, Jesus, magi
Leave a comment
By another road
It was not the journeya wise person would have plannedwith toddlers in tow, wakenedby the stuttering motion of a carstuck in traffic,jammed in their seats while the worldhemmed us in behind and before,each shining roof the baked tileshell of a … Continue reading
Holy Innocents: transferred
There must have been others who retracedtheir ancestors’ footprints over Sinai,although no Moses basket launched upon the Nile;instead, the Innocents wakened from a nightmareby the whisper of a blade, the fadingmemory of mothers’ final, ululating lullaby… Innocence today plays with … Continue reading
over the water 