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Tag Archives: Holy Innocents
The death of Simeon
Simeon, a man full of the Spirit of God, had been told by that same Spirit that he would live to see the face of God. What more could a man want? Yet who could see God and live? Continue reading
John, the post-traumatic prophet
My first Advent as a priest was the season of Sandy Hook. That Sunday the Gospel was about John. I realized that he must have grown up in the shadow of that massacre of innocents committed by Herod; although he, like his cousin, escaped, it would leave its mark on his parents and his small self.
I find myself this Advent once again, for obvious reasons, contemplating post-traumatic John the Baptist, his infant self and all that imprinted itself upon him through the coming of the Christ child and the world’s unwillingness to accept the angels’ proclamation of peace upon the earth.
#preparingforSundaywithpoetry Continue reading
The flight to Egypt (through Gaza)
I can only imagine that you went that way, searching the skies by night for a sign of Herod’s madness overtaking, or a message from the Magi flashed through the heavens; at twilight I scan for the satellites that bring news and war to stream down like … Continue reading
Posted in current events, poetry, prayer
Tagged Gaza, Herod, holy family, Holy Innocents, magi, Matthew 2, war
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The Innocents
From behind the page their cries muffled by millennia seep through Where, we ask, is God? There swaddled tight smuggled out into the wilderness What good, we ask, is a God who bleeds when the sword lays open a mother’s … Continue reading
Holy Innocents: transferred
There must have been others who retracedtheir ancestors’ footprints over Sinai,although no Moses basket launched upon the Nile;instead, the Innocents wakened from a nightmareby the whisper of a blade, the fadingmemory of mothers’ final, ululating lullaby… Innocence today plays with … Continue reading
Holy Innocents: a pieta
The stoles are cobbled together from whatever orange fabric I can lay my hands on in any given season; the constant that binds them together as a family – except for the orange colour – is the children’s handprint pattern that finishes each one off at the ends… Continue reading
Posted in gun violence, holy days, story
Tagged #WearOrange, gun violence, Holy Innocents, Jesus, orange stoles
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Bethlehem
In the ancient city, haunted by memories of feast and famine, exile and exodus, the earth itself makes room, Creation shifting and splitting as angels sing Glory out of cold stars shining with old light. Out of the holy darkness, … Continue reading
Epiphany: we need another way
What I didn’t write in the parish newsletter This Sunday, we celebrate the arrival of the Wise Men at the manger; the completion of many a Christmas tableau. On Christmas Eve, we pondered a moment how the birth of a … Continue reading
Posted in holy days
Tagged Epiphany, gun violence, Herod, Holy Innocents, immigration, migration, refugees
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Holy innocents
Their wisdom was not wanted by the powers that be, in case it would unseat their certainty of their own anointed state. Warned in a dream, they went home another way, pursued by rumours of mothers kneeling in the ashes of … Continue reading
Posted in current events, holy days, poetry, story
Tagged Epiphany, Holy Innocents, Martin Luther King Jr, three kings
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Holy Innocents
The hard historical evidence for the massacre of the innocents of Bethlehem may be sketchy, thank God, yet the meme pervades our culture, from Moses to Jesus; even though we can barely comprehend the idea, we admit it to our … Continue reading
Posted in meditation, poetry
Tagged God, haiku, Herod, Holy Innocents, life, massacre, names
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over the water 