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Tag Archives: Lent
The Friday Fast: spring snow
Like snow that falls after the daffodils have shown their colours, Friday afternoon slips in at the end of a long, slow week to whisper, “One more fast yet before the Sabbath.”
“God shall give the angels charge over thee”
What if when we do these things, taking up spiritual arms against the onslaught of sin, the temptations of selfishness, fasting and praying and strengthening our spirits and training up our hearts to look to God in faith, and in trust; what if it is when we do these things that St Michael and her angels surround us and support us and sustain us, as the angels attended to Jesus in the wilderness after he resisted the wiles of the devil, according to Matthew (Matthew 4:11) Continue reading
The Friday Fast: God remembers that we are dust
An occasional series for Lent 2022 This poem is also found at the Episcopal Cafe
Hear my prayer
The lake has melted. Sand and shale
strewn by the winter floes litter the beach.
I pick out the pebbles that hint at a heart
of stone. My prayers are rocks
thrown heavenward; Continue reading
“A sin of fear”
Fear of our own condemnation is what leads us so often to condemn others. Fear of missing out makes us grasping and fetters our generosity of spirit. We covet what is our neighbour’s instead of making sure that they have enough to get by. Fear of rejection leads us to scapegoat, separate, scorn those whom Christ would welcome from the cross into paradise. Fear makes thieves of our prayers. We seek to secure to ourselves the blessings that God would share with the whole of creation. Continue reading
Posted in poetry, sermon
Tagged 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, A Hymn to God the Father, Exodus 20: 1-17, John 2:13-22, John Donne, Lent, Year B Lent 3
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On being lost
Today’s Speaking to the Soul at the Episcopal Cafe draws upon my word to the parish for March, as well as a much older memory of being (almost) lost in the wilderness Once, we thought we were lost for real. … Continue reading
Less than forty years
We have been in this wilderness for a year now. It will not take us 40 years to reach its far side, but it will remain a part of our faith story, shaping our lament and our hope for years to come. It has physically altered our prayers and our liturgy. It has called us, like Noah, like Abraham, like Moses, into new ways of being and new understandings of God’s presence with us. Continue reading
Ostriches and jackals
(This Lenten meditation for the daily series from the Diocese of Ohio was composed before our part of the world was turned upside down by COVID-19; but God’s mercy endures forever.) Continue reading
Why did this happen?
When Jesus and his disciples come across a blind man begging, the disciples ask a question that the sages have answered in various ways throughout the ages: why is there suffering in the world? Why do even the unarguably innocent – babies and children – suffer? Why do we live with these questions from birth and throughout our lives, even in the midst of joy, even in the midst of love, even with Jesus walking right next to us? Continue reading
Posted in current events, sermon, story
Tagged coronavirus, COVID-19, John 9:1-41, Lent, pandemic, Psalm 23, suffering, theodicy
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The longest Lent
After forty days, he was tempted to give it up: the faith, the fast, the body, lay down among the dry bones. Continue reading
Posted in current events, story
Tagged coronavirus, Lent, Matthew 4:1-11, pandemic, social distancing
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over the water 