Monday, July 23, 2018 | Reflections
Today is the feast day of Mary Magdalene. So often mentioned and so often misunderstood. The first lesson is from Judith (9:1,11-14), the prayer she makes just before she goes and beheads Holofernes. A marvelous act of espionage and assassination, but not exactly...
Sunday, July 22, 2018 | Reflections
Mary Magdalene…. Who was she? Who are we? Feast Day of Mary Magdalene Pure and simple, Mary Magdalene has been made to be what men needed her to be. That doesn’t make her a sinner or a saint, it makes her a woman. Millions of pixels have...
Saturday, July 21, 2018 | Reflections
Last week, for the first time since before the turn of the century (I’ve always wanted to say that), I left the state of Arizona to travel. It meant leaving my cats for four days, the longest I had ever been separated from them since their birth 11-1/2 years...
Friday, July 20, 2018 | Reflections
Readings for the feast day of four pioneers of emancipation: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Ross Tubman, Friday, July 20, 2018: Psalm 146 Wisdom 7:24-28 1 Peter 4:10-11 Luke 11:5-10 Our first reading today is from the...
Thursday, July 19, 2018 | Reflections
Feast Day of St. Macrina the Younger Matthew 11:27-30 When I spend a good chunk of time in contemplative prayer, I wind up being more grounded in what is truly important. This is not because my prayer time is filled with blissful awareness of God. For...
Wednesday, July 18, 2018 | Reflections
“The trouble with being a god is that you’ve got no one to pray to.” Small Gods, Terry Pratchett Does God need our prayers? It is foolishness to Greeks, with their ideal sufficiency. It is a stumbling block to our proud humility, and yet...
Tuesday, July 17, 2018 | Reflections
Sometimes you blink your eyes and a whole year has passed. Last year at this time my family and I were waiting. Summer in full swing, the heat stifling, and a baby about to be born. We woke up each morning and went to sleep every night wondering: will this be...
Monday, July 16, 2018 | Reflections
The parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Mt. 25: 1-13) always bothered me. It was the refusal to share oil on the part of the Wise Virgins. That isn’t very Christian, is it? What happened to share everything? Be poor and meek? Too bad you forgot your oil. Go see...
Sunday, July 15, 2018 | Reflections
2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 I had the great good fortune to have been raised and educated by Southern Baptists. They taught me everything from higher maths to the importance of spending quiet time with God every day. The thing they didn’t teach me, though, is how to...
Saturday, July 14, 2018 | Reflections
Deuteronomy 34:1-12 (RSV) Every life has to defining moments — that of birth at one end, death at the other. Whether one is a Queen or the poorest of the poor, life is bordered by those two events. Of course, there are other milestones in each life lying at...
Friday, July 13, 2018 | Reflections
Today the Daily Office reading that caught my attention was from the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 31 we have reached the point in the story where Moses must hand over power to Josuha as God has made it clear that Moses will not live to cross the Jordan into the...
Thursday, July 12, 2018 | Reflections
Matthew 24:1-14 When I was a therapist some of my clients were people who had suffered unspeakable horrors at some stage as they were growing up. They had been locked in closets or cages, deprived of warmth, food, or light, and had been physically or sexually...
Wednesday, July 11, 2018 | Reflections
Jesus knew what it meant to be pigeon-holed. His town of Nazareth had a population of just a few hundred people, and most of his ministry took place around the Sea of Galilee, just 19 miles from his hometown. Beyond that, many of the gospel stories take place around...
Tuesday, July 10, 2018 | Reflections
She stood timidly and excitedly on the edge. The other children lined up next to her. One by one taking their turn. Hands outstretched ready to catch them. Hands open ready to embrace them. My 3-year-old daughter is on that edge. She’s waiting patiently for her...
Monday, July 9, 2018 | Reflections
O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives...
