Category Archives: story

Out of time

A little Lenten story. ______________ Beginning to surface from the night, sleep-weed still encircling my ankles, I thought, with langorous urgency, that I must text my mother right away; I soothed my awakening conscience that we had kept in touch … Continue reading

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Bread, bridge, stones

A sermon for the first Sunday of Lent There’s a fable by Edwin Friedman called, “The Bridge”.[i] In it, a man on a mission is interrupted by a stranger on a bridge, who asks him to hold the end of … Continue reading

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The story of Barry Baker

A little legend for Lent Once upon a time, an indeterminate number of centuries ago, a little boy was found on the Barry Island beach. The child, not more than a year old, was wrapped in a blanket and laid … Continue reading

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Stigmata?

A little Lenten story She found a strange bruise on one foot – stigmata, perhaps, if it spread? – but it soaked away in the bath instead, leaving an emptiness to blossom somewhere behind her left breast, unseen.

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Fall silent

A short (but true) story for the Sunday Last before Lent: “We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven” (2 Peter 1) _______ Every day, at around about eleven in the morning, the world stood still. Teachers fell quiet mid-lesson, … Continue reading

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Fishing

After John was arrested, they returned to Galilee and to their nets. They must have lost track of Jesus when he went into the wilderness alone after his baptism, during those long days of fasting and temptation. And here he is, back as if from the dead, and once again, they follow him. Continue reading

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Leading cause

I saw the eagle twice today; once above the middle school pinned out against the sky, spread upon the wind, a standard flying; then again a vision hunched over the cemetery, image of an angel, ugly crying. __________________________ In 2020, … Continue reading

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A perfect angel

That was when the angel first realized that they might just have made a smidgen of an error, a bit of a mistake.

“Not that way,” the angel cried into the increasingly empty night. “You’re supposed to run towards Bethlehem! A baby has been born this night and, oh, what have I done?” Continue reading

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Remembrance

It was a Sunday   morning, full of cake and coffee hour, children silenced for a moment by sugar, if not by the lingering spirit of prayer; I remembered there was something I needed to ask.   He was standing … Continue reading

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All Saints 2022

All Saints’ Sunday 2022; Luke 6:20-31 _____________ According to Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Laurentius (St Lawrence) was the “principal of the deacons” serving in Rome in the middle years of the third century, when yet another round of persecutions of … Continue reading

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