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Tag Archives: Holy Week
What we learn from one another
A poem towards Maundy Thursday Some days later, stretching out his hand to pluck an olive to his puckered mouth he remembered her hands and her hair, how the scent of nard filled his mind, overwhelming the taste of the food with the sweet and … Continue reading
Posted in poetry, prayer, preparing for Sunday with poetry
Tagged anointing, footwashing, Holy Week, Jesus, John 12, John 13, Mary of Bethany, Maundy Thursday
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War
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
Posted in current events, poetry, story
Tagged Gaza, Holy Week, hunger, Israel, Jerusalem, Jesus, Luke 23:29, promised land, starvation, war
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Regret
What happens when we stop asking questions? What if instead we had kept on, like a child of God asking why? why? but why? If we had trusted enough to stay in our cautious curiosity, allowed our anger, even outrage to feed a sceptical hope. He was our … Continue reading
Render
Give to God what is God’s, he said, and some, taking him at his Word, went out to prepare the holy sacrifice.
Good Friday
The cross is a mirror. It shows us what we are not, as well as what we are; the embodiment of God, the epitome of humanity: images mundane and immortal in one body.The cross is a mirror. The cross is a mirror. The hammer falls and innocent flesh … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily, poetry, prayer
Tagged Good Friday, gun violence, Holy Week, Lent, mercy, the Cross
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Hosanna – save us!
We are used to thinking of them as the same crowd, moving from one Sunday to the next, but what if they were more like us: divided among themselves, one crying one thing and one another, each with their own ideas of whom should be saved, and how? Continue reading
Posted in holy days
Tagged cross, gun violence, Holy Week, Jesus, Palm Sunday, Passion Gospel, school shootings
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Preaching from the shadows
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
Peter denies the Christ
Peter denies the Christ(John 18:1-27) Malchus It was dark. Smokefrom torches refused to rise, hung about the olives and our eyes,flames close to dying as though lightitself were loath to bear witness Servant girl It was cold;the kind of springmorning … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, poetry, prayer
Tagged Garden of Gethsemane, Good Friday, Holy Week, Malchus, Maundy Thursday, Passion Gospel, Peter, Simon Peter
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Sleep, prayer, grief, and Jesus
Jesus knew that he would conquer death and sin – he had told them over and again that he would rise – but he was grieved and frightened and anguished at the capacity of his human captors for violence. There is no contradiction here: it was from ourselves that he came to save us. That is why he advises his disciples, “Pray that you may not be tested.” Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged gethsemane, Holy Week, Jesus, Palm Sunday, Passion Gospel, prayer, Ukraine
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The Friday Fast: Do not rush to Easter
Do not rush to Easter You may stumble over someone slowlycarrying their cross, might miss the quiet wordsof sacrifice: my body for you, my blood.Do not sleepwalk past the garden, where olive grovesgroan and dream of peace. Do not rush, … Continue reading
over the water 