Category Archives: prayer

Rest

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

Did you recall, as you were falling into the earth, into the abyss of memory, before the ground dented the palms of your hands before their time; did you recall, as the once-living wood pierced your side with bitter splinters, … 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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Abraham also laughed

Posted on June 30, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

A poem-sermon for Friday in the first week of the 2023 Chautauqua season at the Chapel of the Good Shepherd. The readings include Genesis 17:1,9-10,15-22 Abraham also laughed, in the face of God, no less, and lived – more than … Continue reading →

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Sheep

Posted on June 13, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

Can a sheep teach a wolf to eat grass? To enjoy the tender snap of clover stalk, the flake of its flower upon the red and eager tongue? What does the wolf know or love of green pastures, still less … Continue reading →

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Mercy

Posted on June 7, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

Learn what this means, he says: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. But mercy, pitiless in its command, requires the sacrifice of satisfaction, Schadenfreude, vengeance. Righteous indignation; the bitter little consolations that coddle a sore, soured, soul. It makes one wonder, honestly, if he truly, truly understands the meaning of either Word. … 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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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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One or the other

Posted on May 9, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

One says, Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb; another, Thou shalt not covet the livestock. One says, Give as good as you get; another, Do not repay evil for evil, but overcome evil with good. … Continue reading →

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Many dwelling places

Posted on May 3, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

There was a hill covered in cloud that resisted the imprecations of the wind that tossed the crows about and hurried us to shelter beneath a bare crag, eroded by the dwelling of the centuries, bodies it had harbored, of … Continue reading →

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Unhinged

Posted on April 26, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

I am a gate, I swing this way and that, inviting you to step into my dance, leading with the song you have heard before: creak and sigh of hungry humanity herded like sheep by fear and faith by turns. … Continue reading →

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