Category Archives: sermon preparation

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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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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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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Blessed

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

He breathed on them the scent of grave-clothes, myrrh, and aloes, the stench of forgiveness; I imagine that smells of olive oil pressed from the groves in the Garden of Gethsemane, drowning out with unction the fetor of betrayal and blood.  All day long they shed … Continue reading →

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Preaching from the shadows

Posted on March 28, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

The sound of mallet on metal
wood and splintered flesh
ricochets around the city walls
shivering the fabric of
the crowd that clothes the alleyways
too often lost in thought and prayers
we fall without an echo
into the open grave Continue reading →

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Afterwards

Posted on March 21, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

It was the following day that sealed it for him waking with the rooster an hour before dawn the darkness of the room unfamiliar tangled in bedsheets he shivered still straining his hope to conjure up that sun light and … Continue reading →

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Living water

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

I have always loved the sea. Continue reading →

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