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Category Archives: holy days
Triduum
While the dough was doing its thing, I went out to the forge, made one more cross out of gun barrels. Continue reading
Posted in gun violence, holy days
Tagged #GunstoGardens, #GunstoGrace, bread, Good Friday, Jesus, Maundy Thursday, school schooting, way of the cross
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Thursday
We pray in awkward whispers against the reredos of white towels fumbling over nervous feet held in stumbling hands, certain of nothing but betrayal, the cross to come, and sunset’s pale inversion in the water
Posted in holy days, poetry, prayer, story
Tagged betrayal, Easter, foot washing, Maundy Thursday
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Hosanna – save us!
We are used to thinking of them as the same crowd, moving from one Sunday to the next, but what if they were more like us: divided among themselves, one crying one thing and one another, each with their own ideas of whom should be saved, and how? Continue reading
Posted in holy days
Tagged cross, gun violence, Holy Week, Jesus, Palm Sunday, Passion Gospel, school shootings
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Preaching from the shadows
The sound of mallet on metal
wood and splintered flesh
ricochets around the city walls
shivering the fabric of
the crowd that clothes the alleyways
too often lost in thought and prayers
we fall without an echo
into the open grave Continue reading
Quick, quick, slow
A little Lenten story When my children were small, I didn’t forget their names – how could I? – yet as often as not my tongue would take two or three wrong turnings on its way to the beloved standing … Continue reading
Thaw
A little Lenten story, based on Psalm 104:29-30: When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection
Tagged Lent, living water, Psalm 104:29-30, winter
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Living water
I have always loved the sea. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, poetry, sermon preparation, story
Tagged creation, John 4, living water, ocean, saltwater, sea, seaside, womb, Year A Lent 3
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A meditation on the Cross
I imagine they made it of living wood; the tree itself shared your fate,cut down in service of hateful violence,its beauty overlooked, its sacrifice, turning our exhaust into air, sweet bitterness of fruit and pollen, its praise of heaven, limbs raised high, razed to the ground with you. They did not … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, poetry, prayer
Tagged creation, cross, justice, Lent, Lenten meditation
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Running out of water in the holy lands
A little Lenten story First in the north, between fruit trees and shade, it seemed it should be more difficult than this to die, except for the envy of avocadoes and apricots, hoarding the hidden streams of mercy for themselves; It made more sensein the south, where … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer
Tagged Exodus 17:1-7, John 4:5-42, water, Year A Lent 3
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Sinking sand
A little Lenten story An English seaside town, its name suffixed with something left behind by the Romans. A sandy beach with buckets and spades, Punch and Judy, donkey rides, sandwiches gritty with their namesake, seagulls looking for leftover ice … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, story
Tagged childhood, grace, Lent, Lenten discipline, seaside, sin
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