Category Archives: story

War

Posted on March 1, 2024 by Rosalind C Hughes

I want to write about the unbearable irony of dry breasts in a land of milk and honey, the bitter taste of hunger among the olive groves, but I am not qualified. Instead, I will contemplate the crumpled faces of … Continue reading →

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Perspective

Posted on January 28, 2024 by Rosalind C Hughes

Writing the annual report like teaching a child to draw perspective, moulding a year into blocks, trying to keep to scale but death is slippery and shows between the lines; grief will not hold its shape. Joy alone stays along … Continue reading →

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It is the Lord: Come and see

Posted on January 14, 2024 by Rosalind C Hughes

Evangelism, Year B Epiphany 2, 1 Samuel 3, John 1:43-51, Nathanael, Philip, Eli, Samuel, church hurt, church healing Continue reading →

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The erosion of innocence

Posted on October 17, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

Every night, we listened to the rockets fall. The one night that all was quiet, no one could sleep. Still, the most danger I fell into that summer was from the heat, high waters, and the inappropriate appetites of certain men. One evening I sat on the hillside with my arm around a friendly Doberman who had planted himself between my body and that of a young man who had tried to separate me from the herd. I felt safe. Continue reading →

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Two or three

Posted on September 7, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

Two or three: Jesus why are you afraid to be too alone with me? ______________ #preparingforSundaywithpoetry. This Sunday’s Gospel is full of numbers – no, not of numbers, of people, unalone. Matthew 18:15-20

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Walking on water

Posted on August 9, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

Heartracing like the tideebbing and flowing withoutvolition, permissionbattering this vesselbattered by the moonand its phasesfading Do not be afraidof ghostsconjured of foamand fearsome prayer on the cusp of translation Takea stepmy handmy life and let it betake heartthe storm by … Continue reading →

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A new creation

Posted on June 28, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

You know the saying, that the leopard cannot change his spots. A thistle cannot become a fig tree. But there is one, there is one who can make all things new. Continue reading →

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Let go to let love grow

Posted on June 27, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

A sermon for Tuesday in the first week of the 2023 Chautauqua season. The first reading is Lot’s separation from Abram in Genesis 13. __________________ After all those years in the bosom of his grandfather and uncle, I cannot imagine … Continue reading →

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… But do not be afraid

Posted on June 25, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

A sermon for the first week of the Chautauqua Institution season, 2023, Year A Proper 7 _____________ There’s nothing like starting in the middle. With no context, no backstory to soften the blow, we arrive for a week at Chautauqua … Continue reading →

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The road to Emmaus

Posted on April 23, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

If the risen Christ stumbled through our doors, unexpected and unrecognized, visibly wounded in his head and his heart and his hands, how would we treat him? As a victim of our human violence, or as a threat? Continue reading →

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