Category Archives: prayer

The Word

In the beginning, the Word breathed light. In the beginning, the Word formed the vowels of the ocean, hard consonants of land. In the beginning, Word crawled, swam, flew, blossomed. Before flesh, there was the Word; utter God, utter Being, utter Love. John 1:1-18

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Nothing is impossible

If nothing is impossible with God, what can be trusted? The sun may lose its grip on heaven, fall helpless to the ocean, sink or set the world aflame, melting its willing, molten heart. Birds of prey may sing lullabies … Continue reading

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The great forerunner

A star is a miraculous being, born of the infalling of dust and ashes, the sacred debris of creation set aflame on the altar of nightfall;  A miracle blazing by night, as dawn breaks open the path of the rising Sun, outshone, the star remains, its fire … Continue reading

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Not in glory

Not in glory but in the gloom of winter glimmers a light born of love, warmed by love, worshipped by angels; humble beginnings swaddled and held close promise the earth and deliver the heavens.

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John, the post-traumatic prophet

My first Advent as a priest was the season of Sandy Hook. That Sunday the Gospel was about John. I realized that he must have grown up in the shadow of that massacre of innocents committed by Herod; although he, like his cousin, escaped, it would leave its mark on his parents and his small self.
I find myself this Advent once again, for obvious reasons, contemplating post-traumatic John the Baptist, his infant self and all that imprinted itself upon him through the coming of the Christ child and the world’s unwillingness to accept the angels’ proclamation of peace upon the earth.
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Endings and beginnings

Unfurl the sails and let them cover the sun, the moon, the stars with the urgency of glory glorying in the new creation, with tender attention to the fig tree that you always loved, seeing it swell and fall over … Continue reading

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Anglican rosary for the victims of gun violence

A rosary (Anglican prayer beads) for the victims of gun violence, using a rosary with beads and cross made from rifle stock wood and gun barrel metal. Continue reading

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A parable for the anxious

Her voice rasped like a struck match from crying out her wares: Oil! Get your oil here! Don’t run out. She spent her days like a candleburned at both ends, her core alight with the vision of a strip of lamplight creeping from beneath heavy … Continue reading

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Blessed

Blessed are those who know God’s poverty:             the emptying out of all that is not God.  Blessed are those who grieve with God,             who know the sorrow of heaven,                         who nestle in God’s bosom. Blessed are those who have the mind of God,            not … Continue reading

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Stop the bleeding

Dear God,we cry, dear Lord,how much blood can humanity shedbefore we become something otherthan the body that you formedand the spirit that you breathedand the image that you calledvery good? My Christ,can we lay down our weaponsand crawl beneath your … Continue reading

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