Category Archives: lectionary reflection

The spiritual gift of doubt

Blessed are those who can live with certainty, who can bear the burden of sureness. Because in certainty there is no need for hope; sureness has no need for trust. Some of us are not so strong. We cannot live … Continue reading →

Posted in lectionary reflection, meditation, sermon preparation | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nothing, nor anything else

A grace-filled daily reflection from a colleague got me thinking. He was writing about those wonderful words of Paul, which are included in the little rationale for joy and grief coexisting at funerals which is included in our Book of … Continue reading →

Posted in lectionary reflection, other words | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Aflame

Aflame with a passion which has yet to be quite requited, reaching out tongues of everlasting fire to melt the perennially hard-hearted with the patience of Time itself, burning with love, yet unconsumed.

Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Be perfect: a Lenten discipline

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 →

Posted in lectionary reflection, meditation | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Jerusalem, Jerusalem

“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 →

Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon preparation | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Year C Lent 1: temptation and perfection

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 →

Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon preparation | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Spiritual warfare: a sonnet with apologies to Hamlet

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 →

Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

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 →

Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon preparation | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In bodily form

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 →

Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, sermon preparation | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Following

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 →

Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment