Category Archives: holy days

Transfiguration and the transformative gospel

Posted on August 6, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

I enjoy a cleverly devised myth as much as the next person; but what sustains me is this: that I know that God is with us, that God loves us more than we love life itself; that when the world is too loud, or stuns us into silence, Christ is still speaking in that still, small voice, the language of mercy. Listen to him. Continue reading →

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The mountain

Posted on August 2, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

I look to the hills, but from whence is my help to come? Continue reading →

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Thomas the trusting

Posted on July 3, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

Thomas dared to wrestle with God, as Job before him, resisting and insisting on a trial, the evidence to be enumerated in wounds; bold Thomas, brazen Thomas. I do not dare to call Christ to account, to demand such demonstration … Continue reading →

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The Visitation

Posted on May 31, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

I love that, for a moment, you embraced, neither wondering how the other came to be in her loosened state, knowing next to nothing of the contractions to come, spasms of envy slaughtering the innocents and the barely belated, cruel blows which would fell them both, … Continue reading →

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Pentecost 2023: Would that all of God’s people would prophesy!

Posted on May 28, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

Medad and Eldad were not silenced. Peter, when the people grumbled and dismissed the disciples as drunk and deluded, said, “Nah, the bars aren’t even open for brunch yet!” They knew that they had their commission directly from the Holy Spirit. And I wonder what it was that Eldad and Medad were saying to the people in the camp, the ones getting on with their daily lives, prophesying in the midst of them while the elders and elite were pontificating from the outside… Continue reading →

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Ascension (2023)

Posted on May 25, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

With skin like an apple streaked with red, weathered toward ripeness, her hair a wood-stained frame for the pearl earring, moon to her sun, the woman in the seat in front never turned her face to me but from the … Continue reading →

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Easter 2023: it’s (still) a love story

Posted on April 9, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

It isn’t like any love story we could conjure up, because it is true, a true story: Jesus lived among us, the Son of God was crucified, descended to the dead, and on the third day rose again, and he could not wait to greet his beloved disciples on the road, could not wait to see their shining, astonished faces; he could not wait to love them back. Continue reading →

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A special place

Posted on April 8, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

To celebrate the day of its harrowing, and because the phrase came up again just the other day … Continue reading →

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Good Friday

Posted on April 7, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

The cross is a mirror. It shows us what we are not, as well as what we are; the embodiment of God, the epitome of humanity: images mundane and immortal in one body.The cross is a mirror.  The cross is a mirror.  The hammer falls and innocent flesh … Continue reading →

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Maundy Thursday message

Posted on April 6, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

This, for me, was the tragedy of Judas: that he couldn’t see how much God loved him, even when God was right in front of him, washing his feet. Continue reading →

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