Author: Leslie Scoopmire

Prayer for Ascension Day: “Peace be upon us,
and upon all for whom we pray.”

“In the gloaming of the glistening fields
waiting for the embrace the evening  
lead us into deeper faithfulness, O God,
as the Earth turn her face toward night.”

“For the past several weeks of Easter in Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary, readings from the First Letter of John have emphasized that the greatest way the world will come to know Christ will be by how we Christians act. Our actions, especially as those who “wear” the name of Christ, will be the only testimony much of the world will have as to who Jesus is.”

“In peace, we pray to You, Lord Christ,
our hearts and faces upturned and open to your glory.
Holy One, You are our shepherd…”

“Make me ever joyful and merciful
even if children pull my tail.
Help me be ever watchful
that I may protect my home
as you have protected me, O Steadfast One.”

Jesus eats with his disciples after the Resurrection to reassure them and to once again declare his steadfast fellowship with them, regardless of their doubts, their despair, and their previous weaknesses. There is nothing fishy about this, either. Jesus continues to be Jesus even after his Passion, death, and resurrection—for the disciples, and for us. That humble piece of fish becomes part of Jesus’s body as a testimony to the power of God to vanquish even the power of death.

‘The Maundy Thursday liturgy moves us from a celebration of servanthood to, as in the conversion scene in John Masefield’s great poem of redemption and repentance, “The Everlasting Mercy.”’

“Love—self-emptying, other-affirming, self-sacrificing love– IS the most powerful magic in the universe, as even the Harry Potter books pointed out. And the most potent magic of love is found in the fact that we ALL are borne up by the grace of it, and be changed forever by that self-giving, no-holds back love that Jesus offers.”

‘So, also, we are reminded in a recent Lenten gospel that the solitary grain of wheat must fall to the ground and be buried before it can bring forth fruit.  Otherwise, it remains a single grain—the original Greek here actually says, “Remains alone.”’

“Last year, after that crazy Lent and Holy Week, it seemed as though Lent never ended. Some of my churchy friends and I joked that the entirety of 2020 was ‘the Lentiest Lent we ever Lented.'”