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Category Archives: holy days
Holy Innocents: a pieta
The stoles are cobbled together from whatever orange fabric I can lay my hands on in any given season; the constant that binds them together as a family – except for the orange colour – is the children’s handprint pattern that finishes each one off at the ends… Continue reading
Posted in gun violence, holy days, story
Tagged #WearOrange, gun violence, Holy Innocents, Jesus, orange stoles
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Word, wordless
A brief message for Christmas Day If, like me, you have memories from long before you learned how to talk, then you know that even before it speaks an infant tells itself stories and lays them down, woven into the … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily
Tagged Christmas Day, John 1:1-14, John's Prologue, Word of God
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Emmanuel
Emmanuel Away from the crush of the crowd and the hubbub of the inn, aside in the stableChrist is born;in the silence that prepares for his first breath,God speaks: “I am with you.”
Advent (the second coming)
There is no cloud of glory can define, no gates of heaven can confine; there is no dogma, doggerel, or doctrine can describe, no earnest imitation reinscribe him. Christ’s coming cannot be constrained or restrained by our rituals of mortality.Our candles are dimmed, our illuminated manuscripts … Continue reading
Posted in advent meditations, holy days, poetry, prayer
Tagged Advent, Christ, nativity, second coming
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Christ, the King, the way, the truth, the life
Standing before Pilate, Jesus conjures a vision of a kingdom in which the truth is not decided by the preferences of the powerful, nor is justice exacted by violence, nor does the law of the nations have the last word over it. The kingdom that Jesus brings is one in which the love of God stands resolute before the principalities that would lord it over him, and undermines them by refusing to accept the finality of their penalty of death. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, sermon
Tagged apocalypse, Christ the King, Daniel, Kyle Rittenhouse, Pilate, racism, Revelation, what is truth?
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For All Saints and All Souls
He has dwelt with us as our God; we are his people,
and God is with us; and as surely as Jesus wept for his own friend,
he will one day wipe every tear from our eyes. (after Revelation 21:1-6) Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged grief, John 11:32-44, Resurrection, Revelation 21:1-6
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All Saints: crowning glory
It is the Son of God who crowns the saints with immortality. It is the Son of Love who tenderly sloughs away the stained cloth of sin and wraps them in lavish life; the Child of God who is Christ our Mother, in whom we are one family with all the saints and sinners who sing around the throne of God. Continue reading
What would St Luke say?
What would St Luke say about getting a booster for the COVID19 vaccine as available? Perhaps it is not too much of a stretch to imagine that he, in sympathy and solidarity with his physician colleagues and support staff would welcome it. Perhaps it is not too forward to imagine that he would promote every measure to keep his community safe and well and together, to relieve the burdens of those who care for the health of others, and to increase the common good. Continue reading
Posted in current events, holy days, prayer
Tagged community, COVID-19, public health, vaccination
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Little lower
God forbid that I should meetan angel face to face: the many eyeswould terrify, the beating wingsmight stop my heart; how wouldI hear their, “Do not fear,”let alone what may follow? Send me instead the dragonfly, fiercebut fragile, anointing the … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, poetry, prayer, Whom Shall I Fear?
Tagged #WhomShallIFear, angels, Michaelmas, St Michael and All Angels
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Trinity Sunday: we who are many are one
It is the mutuality of the Trinity that we seek. We hear its echoes in our prayers: “though we are many, we are one body” (Romans 12:5). We come closest to it when we experience compassion. Continue reading
Posted in current events, holy days, sermon
Tagged Amos 5:8, COVID, crossroads, gun violence, John 12:32, John 3:17, John Donne, racism, Romans 12:5, Trinity Sunday
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over the water 