Lent
Giving ourselves like alms
Weeks into Lent, some of us may be dipping into those books of Lenten reflections more sporadically than we had hoped. We may feel a bit untethered from whatever observance we had intended. What do we do? Give up? Begin again? Or something else. It’s long been important to me, as I inhabit Lent, to…
Read MoreEpiphany and Lent speak to one another
Tomorrow is the last day of the Epiphany season; those days of wild stars and journey, of new sight, sometimes beautiful, sometimes painful, sometimes a poignant mingling of the two. If you’ve read my two earlier posts, Bending Into Advent and Portals to Joy, you’ll know that sight has been much on my mind during…
Read MoreIf, but . . . and in between
Last Sunday we just touched this text and thinking of it during the week, I recalled this sermon I wrote several years ago. It asks a question pertinent to this time of pandemic this time that troubles us mightily.
Read MoreA Touching Place
On this nightwe know you as loving hostand beloved guest.On this night we follow you to the edge of your sorrow,a sorrow that holds all our own.On this night, O Christ of table and touch,Our longings mingle.
Read MoreThe Hollow in our Hearts
Here we are on the edge of Holy Week. The parade is over; spent petals and tattered banners still blow down the empty streets. Some have stuck their palm fronds in the planters round the lamp posts. Some have forgotten their coats and there is a tiny sneaker on the curb. The air has caught…
Read MoreLove’s you are
Dust you are; to dust you will return. Love’s you are; to Love you will return. I’ve just lit a fire in the woodstove of the small cottage where I’m spending this Ash Wednesday. I first removed some of the copious ashes of last night’s warm and companionable fire. Those aren’t the ashes I will…
Read MoreA Lenten Prayer of Invitation
Come Work your hands in the clay of your heart. Shape of this pause a bowl, for Loveresonant
Read MoreThe Eyes of the Heart
Last week we practiced Visio Divina, Sacred Seeing, allowing ourselves to be called through a curve or a cloud or a colour deep into memory and silence; to allow the press of the divine on our lids, to receive new sight. I remembered the sacred seeing of the man whose lids Jesus touched. …
Read MoreDon’t Be Afraid
I didn’t intend to post today. But I sat down to work with gathering up the worship for Sunday and began to recall conversations I’ve had over the last week about people and congregations that have become numb. It’s an important word and the state it describes spreads insidiously. A shot of numbness, when life…
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