Tag Archives: Lent

In time

Without time,
can even God make a beginning? Continue reading

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Hope in the ashes

There is hope in cold ashes. We do not “do” Lent, we do not approach the fast as those who have no hope, or as though who fear the fire. For God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and … Continue reading

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Forty days of fear

The most ubiquitous instruction in the Bible, we are told, is this: Do not be afraid. And yet, its counterpart is not unfamiliar, either: Fear the Lord your God. Ash Wednesday marks the first of forty days of Lent. It … Continue reading

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Penitence

After William Wordsworth’s “Preface to Lyrical Ballads,” 1800 Recollected in tranquillity, passions burnt beyond their embers. Unguarded breath conjures dust devils, smoke without fire, echoes of disgrace remembered by the ashen light of dawn. Dignified in variegated gray, sifted, judiciously, … Continue reading

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Still

At the eclipse, the birds fall silent, the earth shrugs its mantle of shadows close; death comes easily, a simple matter of forgiving all that life still owes Resurrection rises with the spring equinox sun pressing home its higher vantage. … Continue reading

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Year C Lent 1: reading and meditating on God’s holy Word

So it is Lent; but because we are not Puritans but Episcopalians, we can still have a little fun. Today, I have brought a new game to get us in the mood to consider this morning’s gospel. It is called, … Continue reading

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Last Sunday after the Epiphany: shining through

The closer we come to the core, the center of the gospel, the more clarity and the more mystery we encounter. On the one hand, the story is straightforward. A child’s board book would show Jesus and the disciples dusty … Continue reading

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Seven Last Words of Christ

He was quoting the twenty-second Psalm, a prayer already centuries old. It is a cry as old as time. It is a cry that echoes all around. And yet, it perseveres, it is repeated only because at its heart, at its depth, at the height of its agony it holds out hope against hope that someone is still listening. That God will, in fact, return, to comfort us.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Continue reading

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Prayer drought

A reflection for the Lenten collection of the Diocese of Ohio. From the day’s readings: “Jesus was casting out a demon that was mute; when the demon had gone out, the one who was mute spoke, and the crowds were … Continue reading

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Year B Lent 1: aftermath

Why – why in God’s name would God, of all people, need to set a reminder to remember not to wipe out creation? We tell the story to our children, that the rainbow was a gift from God to remind … Continue reading

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