Why, then, do we cling so desperately to control and certainty? Well, if control and certainty are the first two legs of the three-legged stool of arrogance, fear is the third.
The Feast Day of Prudence Crandall As I was reading about Prudence Crandall, the Holy Woman we honor today, a memory floated into my consciousness.
The idea that one could take a garment, or a person, wash them in blood, and have them come out clean says to me that these are people who have suffered and lost, who have been immersed in suffering, who have had pain stick to them like dried blood; and yet, they have come though the other side of suffering clean and dry, their robes made white, their pain relieved.
To the cynical, the distracted, the bored, Jesus commands: Ephphata… Be opened! Open your hearts. Open your minds. Open your senses. Open your will to believe.
the martyr’s wheel rises
the break beatified
by a fragrant halo
silvery traces of the soul’s flight
toward paradise
Apparently, those of us who found a seat in our place of worship yesterday were lucky. Solomon’s temple didn’t even have room for the priests! Here’s what took up all the space.
What “gift that is in you” might be a bit neglected, buried in the grass in the flowerbed that is your life, and how can it re-emerge to be a part of the church in the world? What is your stake in the world, where grace calls you to be more fully present?
Reading from the Commemoration of John Bunyan ‘In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the
Judas is our beloved, part of the Body of Christ. Judas is right here with us, in those we love most, and in ourselves as well. The Body of Christ includes the betrayer. What do we make of that fact? What do we allow it to teach us?
The woman with the alabaster jar “wasted” her precious ointment. The companions of Jesus wanted her to exchange it for its cash value. What will we waste today so that we can know its true worth to Christ?