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
Good Friday 2015: Bury me at the crossroads
I nail my sins to the cross, not because I blame God, or believe that Jesus should bear my guilt. I have often heard myself cry “crucify,” but this is not that. This is some strange, new hope that comes … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, poetry, prayer
Leave a comment
Maundy Thursday 2015
When I came home, my foot was bleeding from a cut acquired through the wearing of open-toed sandals in a dirty and dangerous city. My mother came into the bathroom where I was going through the tortured motions you have to go through in order to get your own feet under running water and into clean bandages. Without hesitation, my mother took my feet out of my hands, washed them, anointed them with antibiotic ointment, and bandaged them for me. As she worked, she offered from her knees and from her heart her forgiveness, her acceptance, her love; and I found myself doing the same. Neither of us had changed our position, yet love and mercy won, and we were reconciled. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, sermon
Tagged discrimination, family, foot washing, forgiveness, Maundy Thursday
2 Comments
Everyday holiness
Although they had warned him against her, there was nothing untoward in her touch. The salt of her tears drew out his skin as though it reached back toward her. She dried his toes with her hair, barely tickling; no … Continue reading
Hearing Voices
“And it was,” he said, “as though the heavens opened, I swear to God; the clouds at that very moment split apart like the Red Sea rising, and the sun striking through, fell warm and heavy on my back; no, … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, poetry
Tagged Mark 1, The Baptism of Our Lord
Leave a comment
Epiphany: wise gifts
I wonder whether, in the clumsy and hurried packing of a small family with a small child, fleeing for their lives with the essentials and little more, listening over their shoulders for the alarm, the tramp of boots, the metallic … Continue reading
Christmas 2014
On Christmas Eve, we talked about miracles and the veil between heaven and earth rent by angel song and the birth of God, the love of God borne into the world by a baby. The next morning, wondering what to … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily
Tagged anticipation, Christmas Day, John 1:1-18, prologue of john, surprise
Leave a comment
Christmas Eve: love you to Bethlehem and back
There is a tradition that the night between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is a time for miracles. Beatrix Potter, who wrote the Peter Rabbit books, said that, it is in the old story that all the beasts can talk, … Continue reading
Transfiguration
Early in the darkening dawn, shadows weighting their sight, waiting for the sun to rise on the Light of the World, blind their vision with magnesium-bulb brightness, harmonic resonance of lightning arcing between earth and heaven.
Posted in holy days, poetry
Tagged light of the world, Luke 9:28-36, Transfiguration
Leave a comment
Zechariah and the newborn
Today is the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist. According to the Gospel of Luke, when Gabriel (an archangel) announced to John’s father that his wife would conceive, Zechariah was doubtful, and Gabriel, as a sign that this … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, poetry
Tagged birth, John the Baptist, Luke 1, silence, speech, Zechariah
Leave a comment
over the water 