Category Archives: other words

Maundy Thursday: washing Judas’ feet

Posted on April 1, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

The devil had already sown the seeds of betrayal in Judas’ heart, and Jesus knew it full well. He let Judas know that he knew it. And he washed Judas’ feet. Continue reading →

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Washed in the word

Posted on March 30, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

Beside a lake melted into being by glaciers I bathe my feet in your word made water – the fluidity of creation – dry them in the sand, scourings of the land eroded, as all flesh, remade asa million grains … Continue reading →

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How I discovered that I have no sense of smell

Posted on March 29, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

if my devotions appear lacking or incomplete,
charge it I pray to my imperfect property,
and not to my intent. Continue reading →

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On being lost

Posted on March 3, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

Today’s Speaking to the Soul at the Episcopal Cafe draws upon my word to the parish for March, as well as a much older memory of being (almost) lost in the wilderness Once, we thought we were lost for real. … Continue reading →

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Less than forty years

Posted on March 1, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

We have been in this wilderness for a year now. It will not take us 40 years to reach its far side, but it will remain a part of our faith story, shaping our lament and our hope for years to come. It has physically altered our prayers and our liturgy. It has called us, like Noah, like Abraham, like Moses, into new ways of being and new understandings of God’s presence with us. Continue reading →

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Halfway

Posted on December 30, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

On the sixth day, halfway through Christmas, with the wholesomeness of God’s love lying in a manger and the heartlessness of Herod running riot in the streets; with God’s Incarnate One being prepared for his first wound, and his mother slowly healing, but her catching her heart in her mouth each time he sighs; on the sixth day, Joseph half-turns back, forgetting to pack up the bread he had picked up before the baby cried, his heart halfway to heaven and his spirit halfway to madness with the wonder of it all. Continue reading →

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God gets maternal anxiety

Posted on September 22, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

My friend and my mentor each touched upon that near-fatal intersection of parenting and perfectionism that will plague me with anxiety until the kingdom come. Does God, that perfect Parent, suffer anxiety? Continue reading →

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Naming the idols

Posted on March 2, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

Some are easy to spot, sporting colourful plumage;

they make fast promises they cannot keep. Continue reading →

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Words matter

Posted on February 16, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

Jesus does not want us less than whole. He does not want our bodies abused, nor for our relationships to become a prison or a torment. The instructions he gives us, time and again, are to love God and to love one another; anything more is hyperbole; anything less is parody. Continue reading →

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prayer incarnate

Posted on September 12, 2019 by Rosalind C Hughes

How did you pray, body and breath, those wilderness days beneath stars that made promises, sand through your hands counting moments since creation, each grain an erosion of the whole; how did you pray, body and spirit sticky with honey … Continue reading →

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