Over the next few months we will regularly share favorite prayers from our Book of Common Prayer (BCP). If you have a favorite you’d like to share, please let me know! ([email protected])
Today’s prayer is from Lou Markert, and it can be found in the Prayers and Thanksgivings section of the BCP (pp. 810-841):…
This coming Tuesday, March 17, is the feast day of St. Patrick, and while you might wear green or drink dyed-green beer, I suggest a different observance − listening to one of my favorite hymns: St. Patrick’s Breastplate. We don’t hear it a lot, likely because it is long − seven verses in our 1982 Hymnal and even longer in other versions!….
One of my favorite prayers in our wonderful Book of Common Prayer comes at the end of the service of Holy Baptism. It is a prayer for the newly baptized, and in its last line especially it expresses wonderful qualities that I hope that all of us come to embody more and more….
…Also, I have a request: During Mother Anna’s sabbatical, we will be sharing favorite prayers from the Book of Common Prayer twice a month in these meditations. We’d love to know what your favorite prayer is! Please email me ([email protected]) and let me know which one and why. Your choice could be featured in a future meditation. Thank you!
As Black History month draws to a close, let us pause to remember, to honor, and to celebrate. We remember the suffering, we honor the resilience, and we celebrate the victories of the Black community, who against all odds, kept faith in a God who delivers. This Sunday’s Gospel from John, Speaks powerfully into that story.
In this passage, we meet a man named Nicodemus. He was a Pharisee, a leader, educated and respected. Yet he came to Jesus at night. Night suggests darkness – not just the time of day, but a spiritual condition. Nicodemus had position but still lacked something. He had religion but still wrestled with understanding. So, he came in the dark, searching for light….
In our culture of busyness, we who are faithful talk a lot about “doing” vs. “being.” We remind ourselves and one another that we are “human beings” and not “human doings.” We cherish small moments of quiet—especially in our beautiful, chaotic city. We work to carve out time for contemplation and stillness. Scripture commends such time and space to us. Spiritual leaders in all traditions point to its importance for growth. And sometimes, contemplation gets elevated over action, as if the singular, inner journey is the most legitimate path toward God….
Absalom Jones was born into slavery in 1746 in Delaware. He taught himself to read from the New Testament and other books. At the age of 16, his mother and sister were sold, while he was brought to Philadelphia. In the evenings, he attended a Quaker school and also worked, and he was able to keep his earnings. In 1770, he married an enslaved woman and purchased her freedom. Then in 1774, he gained his own freedom through manumission….
In my Annual Address during our service of Holy Eucharist last Sunday, I referenced the statement in response to the murder of Renee Good posted by Matt Moberg, NBA chaplain for Minnesota Timberwolves. With his words, chaplain Moberg offers a cry of the heart—and a call to Christians and all faithful people to examine what discipleship means in our lives. You may or may not agree with him, and your feelings and reactions may find expression differently….
When Jesus proclaims the Beatitudes, he is not speaking in abstractions. He is speaking into a world marked by deep inequality, political oppression, and religious complacency. The crowd before him know hunger, violence, and exclusion. Jesus dares to say: Blessed are you…..
Our Director of Operations has a book on her desk titled Death by Meeting. The book presents itself as a “leadership fable” about one of the common realities of all organizations: the need to gather for the purpose of disseminating and processing information. Which, as the title of the book suggests, can be a burdensome—if necessary–expectation for the people in attendance.
We at Holy Apostles had a meeting scheduled for this coming Sunday. Because of the impending winter storm, we have rescheduled our Annual Meeting for next Sunday, February 1st…..
There is so much going on in our world and especially in our country today that is frightening. I am a bit of a news junkie, but these days I am finding that I need to disconnect a bit more — and to instead spend more time with the fundamentals of our faith. I especially find it useful to come back to the baptismal covenant, which we renewed last Sunday as part of our service marking Jesus’ baptism….