Category Archives: lectionary reflection

Be perfect: a Lenten discipline

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

This morning’s post was written as a contribution to a collection of daily Lenten reflections by thirty members of clergy of the Diocese of Ohio. The Rev Gayle Catinella, Rector of St Thomas, Berea, solicited, organized and produced the reflections, … Continue reading →

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Jerusalem, Jerusalem

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” The chicks scatter, competing instead of complementing one another, straining to grow despite one … Continue reading →

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Year C Lent 1: temptation and perfection

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

Notes for the sermon that won’t be preached tomorrow: Was there never any danger that Jesus would succumb to the temptings and promptings and proddings of the devil? We tend to trap ourselves in our language of perfection and innocence, … Continue reading →

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Spiritual warfare: a sonnet with apologies to Hamlet

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

The “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” have nothing on the armour-piercing fury of a bullet tipped with wormwood gall; no arbitrary missile this, but launched from beyond the earth; underworld to surface borne on wings of fire, brimstone burning, … Continue reading →

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Year C Epiphany 4: Early reflections on Luke 4:21-30

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

Once upon a time, a boy was born, and he grew up in a regular-sized town, and the people who knew people knew him – the teachers and the coaches and the librarians, the grocers and the beat cops, his … Continue reading →

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In bodily form

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

When our bodies betray us, let us down, we berate them, hesitate to call them holy, when, after all, they are the sacrament of God’s creative genius, each featherlight touch a reminder of the love that engendered our creation, redemption, … Continue reading →

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Following

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

The brightness beckoning, reckoning light years away, in the beginning, there was a star which now calls them from afar to follow, stumbling in the daytime, in the forests, fog-filled valleys, rallying with breathless joy on the mountaintop where all … Continue reading →

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Broody vipers

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

“John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You broody vipers!” (Luke 3:7 … almost)

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John’s backstory

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

(Sunday sermon spoiler alert!) There is a backstory to today’s gospel. Luke gives us lots of context: who was ruling where, and had been for how long; he gives us a snapshot of the political situation, the state of the … Continue reading →

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Zechariah finds his voice

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

This week, we get to read the Song of Zechariah, the loosened tongue of a man whose loins have finally produced an heir after decades of longing and loss; the praise of a priest who was struck dumb by the … Continue reading →

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