On Saturday, October 28, the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Simon and Saint Jude. Despite having a feast day dedicated to them, we don’t know much about either man. They were named as apostles in the gospels, but Simon is never mentioned again. Because he is...
The Rev. Dr. Barbara Holmes is a theologian and pastor with experience in education, activism and the arts. She describes her life as being “committed to the struggle for justice, the healing of the human spirit, and the art of relevant and radical creativity.” In our individual and collective struggles to process current events and respond faithfully, she offers us this list of spiritual reflections and practices…
God’s gift of grace is generously showered upon all, but if we do not receive that grace and allow it to change us, we can miss out on the abundant life of salvation….
Grace is the grace that goes before us, available to all people. Justifying grace is the grace that moves us from our old selves into a new covenant life with God, and sanctifying grace is the grace by which we grow in our Christ likeness….
Two weeks ago, I wrote here about St. Matthew. Last Friday, Mother Susan wrote about St. Michael. If it’s not too much “saint focus” (is there such a thing as too much “saint focus?”), today I remind us that Wednesday of this week was the day when we celebrate St. Francis of Assisi. Arguably the most famous saint in Christendom, Francis is known and beloved by people from across the spectrum of faith traditions.
Because he is so famous, many stories of his life are well known. His conversion to Christianity follows an arc similar to St. Paul’s, and his expression of faith echoes medieval ballads of courtly love. In rejecting temporary comforts, he reminds us of God’s provision for all. When he confronts the Wolf of Gubbio, Francis takes a stand against demonizing the stranger. In his Canticle of the Sun, Francis draws all things together, rejoicing in God’s infinite expressions of creativity….
Today, Friday, September 29, is the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels. It might be a particularly auspicious day to be open to how angels are present in our own lives. Here is John O’Donohue’s A Blessing of Angels, which might help us to experience angels in a new way…
In her memoir about growing up white and privileged in the South, Episcopal priest and feminist theologian Carter Heyward shares this story from her childhood: she loved horses, and she often rode one special horse named Red. One day, while she was riding, she was having an especially difficult time getting Red to synch up with where they both needed to go. If she indicated right, Red went left, and vice-versa.
Her frustration grew and grew (which, of course, did nothing to address the problem!). Eventually her trainer entered the ring, saw what was happening, and shouted out, “Communicate with your horse, Carter!” So, she reports that she started talking to Red as if the horse was a child, or a friend. The trainer corrected her immediately: “I didn’t say talk to Red. I said communicate!”…
We hear forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer. We hear forgiveness in our creed. We hear about forgiveness in our confession.
What is forgiveness? The dictionary says, to excuse for a fault or offense, to grant pardon without harboring resentment, to excuse a mistake without fault, an intentional decision to let go of resentment and anger. The Greek word translated forgiveness to means, “to let go.”
Forgiveness is in many ways a learned behavior. We learn how to forgive. We learn to value it or not. We can also learn other lessons about forgiveness. Some people hold righteous anger. They bare a grudge for decades….
For many people, drinking coffee is a non-negotiable morning ritual. If you are one of those people who love waking up with a cup of caffeinated elixir (at any hour!), you might be interested to know how coffee started to become the world-wide phenomenon it is today….
Aidan was a monk at St. Columba’s monastery on the island of Iona in the seventh century. Upon hearing that a fellow monk had gotten nowhere in preaching the gospel to the northern English, Aidan piped up and opined that perhaps a gentler approach would work. The predictable result was that Aidan soon found himself on the way to Northumbria to evangelize! He was so successful in his mission that Christianity soon spread as far as London….
Riding the C train uptown one afternoon, my spouse Charlie nudged me and subtly pointed to the other side of the car. Sitting across from us was a man wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Winchester Sachems,” accompanied by a graphic depicting the profile of what was meant to be an indigenous person in some sort of headdress. I recognized the image immediately. I attended Winchester High School in Massachusetts, and the “Sachem” was our mascot.