Today, in our yearly calendar commemorating Holy Women, Holy Men we remember Emily Malbone Morgan. I confess that I did not know very much about this woman. Looking her up, I found her described as a “prophetic witness” and a “modern contemplative.” She was a founder of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross in 1884. This lay order for Episcopal women was both fervent in prayer and very involved in issues of social justice reform at the turn of the twentieth century….

This Monday our country will commemorate Presidents’ Day. My personal celebration of this holiday in past years has had little to do with any presidents and much more to do with taking a ski trip over the long weekend (with roughly a billion other people who are also trying to take advantage of the winter weather and the school break!). But this year I decided to actually remind myself of just who we are meant to be celebrating…..

The latest newsletter from the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Cambridge, MA included a page with the headline Formation in Practice. Underneath was this introductory question: “what does it mean to believe?” Stating that belief is something we do (rather than something we think), the short article included the following questions for reflection:

What other words are synonymous with “belief” for you?
Who has inspired belief in your life? What did they do or say that inspired you?
What actions engage or express your beliefs? How do you feel you are embodying belief?…

The Outcome of Obedience to God will always bring blessings!

The Lord’s simple requests often serve as stepping-stones to life’s most wonderful blessings.

Simon Peter illustrates what can happen when we say yes to God.

The Lord wanted to use Peter’s boat as a floating platform from which to address the multitude, so He asked Peter to push his boat out a little way from shore.

Peter’s compliance to His request paved the way for a life changing blessing….

I recently found a blessing I had saved long ago in an email folder. I had sent it to myself, with no indication of who wrote it or where I got it. So I did a little googling this morning, and found that the blessing below was written by Brian Baker, an Episcopal priest and former cathedral dean in Sacramento.

It turned out that he wrote the blessing for use at an unlikely place: the annual Burning Man festival. As an event that emphasizes radical self-expression, among other principles, Burning Man doesn’t immediately seem to be a place that is overrun with church-y types! But Dean Baker, who has attended regularly since 2015, found that there were indeed people hungry for blessing at the festival — and so he created this prayer for them….

“Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo
The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.
The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been
               since creation, and it will go on.
We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners.
               They scrape their knees under it.
It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human.
             We make men at it, we make women.,,,,,

Christmas can be a time of year where there is quite a lot of activity and bustling and “too-much-ness,” even in the midst of a continually evolving pandemic. And yet, the iconic story of the birth of Jesus actually has a stillness and simplicity to it. The Christmas star shines in the quiet night, leading us to the hope, promise, and joy in the birth of our Savior….