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Category Archives: prayer
The cost of mercy
Raw thoughts on the parable of the good Samaritan, heard at Morning Prayer Mercy does not come cheap at two denarii, a night’s unpaid delay, the physical labour of lifting a grown man onto a donkey, walking with bags of … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer
Tagged Daily Office, Good Samartian, Luke 10:29-37, mercy, morning prayer
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Morning prayer
A rainbow in my rearview mirror; ahead, the bridge is stalled to let an ambulance fly over, chasing life. A rainbow in my rearview mirror; the electronic highway sign describes an untold story in make, model, missing, before reverting to travel time for the morning commute. A rainbow … Continue reading
Posted in poetry, prayer
Tagged Daily Office, Luke 9:51-62, morning prayer, rainbow, vocation
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Nevertheless, God persisted
To persist in prayer, at its foundation, is to persist in our relationship with that God. It is not to lose hope that God’s will will be done, not to turn away to other, more immediate but more corruptible resolutions. This call to persistence is the call of the prophets, to do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly beside God, deep in conversation, or indeed in a conversational silence, knowing that our faith is not misplaced. Continue reading
Who am I to judge?
The judge of the parable had no regard for anyone, but the God who will pass judgement upon me so loved the world as to become Emmanuel, God with us, to suffer under our unjust judgement, and to die. The God who will, I pray, have mercy upon me hears the cries of the widows to whom I turn a cloth ear, and continues to importune me with opportunities for penitence. Continue reading
Angel
Hide stretched taut, a little frayed at the edges – homage to the fantasy of feathers – humming as the updraft plays its song of praise to the author of breath; you have become an instrument of glory, the terrible call and echoing, empty response, symphony on skins full of … Continue reading
The Call of Matthew
If you were to write a gospel, what would you include? What might you leave out? Would you slide in a cameo of the time that Jesus, passing through your toll booth, caught your eye, mouthed, “Follow me”? … Continue reading
Did Jesus dream?
Did Jesus dream? Were his dreams oracular, spectular, unconsciously omniscient, encompassing future and past, nebulae and black holes? Were there days when night hung from his shoulders, unlight, leaden remnants of memory or premonition? Did Jesus delight in the absurdity of dreamscape? Was he … Continue reading
Things I made this week*
BreadA dressCommunionA poemGoat milk vanilla bean ice creamA discovery: the cats adore goats’ milkLoveA sermonA cross out of dismantled gunmetalA deal with the lake, God, and the skythat if they will endurea little longer so will I *some details may … Continue reading
Posted in poetry, prayer, story
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Lost in prayer
Sometimes when I pray the words scurry by like ants I watch their silent progress unregistered on the kitchen scale undulating in their trail unnoticed until they become a swarm indistinguishable one from the next Sometimes there is one you see that carries five thousand times its weight … Continue reading
Posted in poetry, prayer
Tagged ants, distraction, Episcopal Cafe, Episcopal Journal, prayer
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Where your treasure is
This upcoming Sunday’s Gospel reading includes Jesus’ aphorism: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:34 and parallels). Last week, looking for something I have already forgotten, I found at the back of my bedside drawer the name tag of my grandmother’s dog, which I have apparently and largely unknowingly kept for some forty years; hence this poem. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, sermon preparation, spiritual autobiography
Tagged Luke 12:34, Matthew 6:21, treasure
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over the water 