How I long for an endless summer of blue skies and warm days that invite you to go outside rather than huddle inside by the glow of the TV and other electronics! I’m experiencing my yearly end of summer slump as I think about all I didn’t do this summer. No trip to Mackinaw or […]
Read MoreHave you ever been in a situation where you have felt helpless before outside forces over which you have no control? If you don’t think you have, I would suggest you think again. All of us are subject to forces outside of our control. There are many that we may not be aware of, yet […]
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In response to God’s call for “no bull” in Psalm 50, we hear Psalm 51, the most well-known of the Penitential Psalms where the writer comes before God with a contrite heart and prays for the removal of personal and social sin, a psalm commonly associated with Lent. Attributed to King David after being confronted […]
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I love the way words spoken thousands of years ago are still relevant today, sometimes in ways that surprise. In Psalm 50, God is speaking to his people. God comes as a thundering judge to testify against the people, “Our God comes, he does not keep silence, before him is a devouring fire, round about […]
Read MoreEpilogue – For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Doxology – Walter Brueggemann at a recent conference exclaimed that doxology needs to be exuberant, a self-abandonment in response to the inexplicable generosity of God. Easter certainly is a time for doxology, exuberant praise of God for all God has […]
Read MoreRandom Thoughts on Preaching using the Revised Common Lectionary by a Catholic Lay Woman As a Catholic Lay woman who has never been formally trained in preaching, who am I to preach? I am not allowed to preach in the Catholic Church, that being reserved to ordained priests and deacons, and yet that is what […]
Read MoreJerusalem: One City, Three Faiths Jerusalem: sacred to all three of the major monotheistic faiths, a site of controversy, violence and abuse of the sacred, a place of contradiction. Karen Armstrong, in her book, Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths, describes thousands of years of history of this city, a history filled with bloodshed. With […]
Read MoreSt. Gregory’s Abbey, Three Rivers, MI Benedictine monasteries pray all of the psalms over the course of one week, beginning with matins in the wee hours of the morning, through lauds, terce, sext, none, vespers and ending with compline before going to bed. I have wanted to experience this for some time, just had to […]
Read MoreBird by Bird – Psalm by Psalm I’m still in the beginning stages of this venture through the Psalms. When I look at the entirety of the book, I am overwhelmed. So many of the same themes are repeated over and over, how will I ever come up with new sermon material for each one? […]
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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” thus Charles Dickens began his novel, A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens, in his writing on Christmas, did more to save Christmas from a neglected, little observed celebration than any person of his time, leading to our current time of excess. This time […]
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