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Category Archives: holy days
All hallows
It took so long to get the fire lit, even though the wind blew as though the Holy Spirit fanned the flames of Pentecost herself. The children in their costumes came and went without judgement, candy-sweet. When the tinder finally … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, poetry, prayer, preparing for Sunday with poetry, story
Tagged All Saints, Hallowe'en
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The little flower
The salvation of the world is not in our hands, but the promise of prayer is. And while the peace of God passes our understanding, it is at hand. It is found in the smallest act of love, a little flower growing between the cracks of a fractured and fractious world, persistent in its beauty, brave in its beauty, and unstoppable in its reach toward the sun. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily, sermon
Tagged Judith, little flower, little flower of Jesus, prayer, Therese de Lisieux
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Not as the world
When he says, “My peace I give to you,” Jesus is not describing a passive peace. It is the peace not of the grave, where Jesus himself was restless, but of living waters, rolling down like justice, roaring like a vision, aflame with mercy. It is the profound and urgent love that fanned the waters of creation and produced life. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, sermon
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Catherine and the world on fire
Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire. – Catherine of SienaBut what if the world were already on fire? Set the world on fire,blaze like oil across the waters such that none … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, poetry, prayer
Tagged Catherine of Siena, creation, ocean, world on fire
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Easter (without a happy ending)
Easter is not a happy ending. It is hopeful, it is healing, it is a powerful rebuke of death and a defiant proclamation of the life, the mercy, and the love of God that persists throughout human history, throughout human … Continue reading
Holy Saturday: quiet as the grave
But did the very earth fall silent? Or was the drumbeat of falling rain, children of the waters of creation falling again, amplified by the rock roof, turning the storm into an orchestra of praise; what of susurrating ants, murmuring earthworms, galvanized by the hewing … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, poetry, prayer
Tagged God, Holy Saturday, Incarnation, Jesus, poetry, prayer, Resurrection, silence, tomb
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Palm Sunday: Gleanings
Did they leave their cast-off garments for the poorto pick up and wear after the parade?Who kept watch for the Romans,and what was the signal to disperse in a hurry,and who knew and who was left to fend for herself?Did … Continue reading
The death of Simeon
Simeon, a man full of the Spirit of God, had been told by that same Spirit that he would live to see the face of God. What more could a man want? Yet who could see God and live? Continue reading
Anna in the sanctuary
Widowed, but not alone, shrouded in the living stone of temple prayers woven as a garment of grace haunting the holy place, sanctified and sanctifying the very air with praise. She would not follow them to Egypt, return with them … Continue reading
What heals history?
We enter this new year, and this new season after Christmas, with some trepidation, don’t we? We are haunted by the shadows of the past, concerned for the present, warned by the violence that greeted the new year in New Orleans and Nevada and far beyond; our hopes and fears for the future year clash and mingle in the air like smoke.
And yet this is the Feast-day, the celebration of the Epiphany, the manifestation of God’s incarnation to the nations, to us. The bright promise that God is with us, even us. Continue reading
Posted in current events, holy days, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Epiphany, Herod, Incarnation, insurrection, Jesus, love, Matthew 2:1-12, The Revelation of the Magi
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over the water 