Category Archive

 5th Sunday in Easter • Acts 7:55–60 • 1 Peter 2:2–10 • John 14:1–14 • May 7, 2023 • Pluralism Sunday There’s a tree in the woods near me that I call the many-hearted tree. Since she has many forks about shoulder height, no matter what direction you approach from, you have the impression of a pair of arms raised in welcome, ready to enfold you where a heart would be. I was just passing by her the other day when I noticed the echo of today’s Gospel: “In my Abba-God’s house there are many dwelling places.” The word for …

Homily for the Third Sunday of EasterApr 23, 2023 Road to Emmaus-Sandra Dugruid There have been crucifixions, too, in our town–innocents gunned down in their doorways or in school halls; or radiations black outlines, three crosses marked a sisters chest: no wonder we walk in quiet rage, musing And who, on this road, will join us, seeming unaware of the worst news in the neighborhood, but spelling out the history of the prophets and a future: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? Could our hearts still burn within us? Will we ask …

Happy Second week of Easter to each of you!  I hope you still cherish the reverberations of our worship last week. I was grateful that this week, when I felt troubled, my concerns were somehow reframed for me by echoes of the Exultet we sang in Saturday’s vigil. I’m grateful, too, for the wisdom of the early church, which set apart these days bridging Easter to Pentecost as Mystagogy:  Sacred time, to immerse ourselves in the mystery into which we were baptized. These 2 final pages of John’s Gospel hold both the Resurrection of Jesus and Pentecost’s outpouring of the …

Homily preached on Easter Sunday, April 9, 2023, at Holy Wisdom Monastery, Middleton, WI One of the characters in John Irving’s masterful novel A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY calls Easter “the main event” for Christians. He explains that any fool can feel like a Christian at Christmas, but that one who does not believe in the resurrection is not really a believer. To take this even further, Biblical scholars Borg & Crossan in their powerfully written overview of Jesus’ final days in Jerusalem (THE LAST WEEK) add this: “Without Easter, we wouldn’t know about Jesus” Ok, let that soak in …

EASTER VIGIL April 8, 2023 So, my friends, here we are at last…and here we are again.  At last we have come to the end of our 40-day journey through the desert of Lent; through the spiritual agony of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane; through the physical agony of his torture, crucifixion, and death; through the silence of the last 24 hours, waiting, not knowing.  And now, at last, we are here.  We are here, singing “Alleluia!”…the word that we gave up for Lent.  We are here, at last, rejoicing in the New Light, the New Life that is …

Good Friday Reflection – Holy Wisdom Monastery, April 7, 2023 Nancy Enderle John 19:16-30 We pause on this sacred day to stand together at the foot of the cross. For some, this day is etched deeply into our memories as we recall attending services across the years and across the many stages of our lives.  Others of us arrived from a less traveled path, and come to this sacred day in this holy place to establish a new rhythm of listening to and honoring the passion of Christ. What each of us brings to this Good Friday is impacted by …

March 26, 2023 Reflecting on this gospel after the death of her husband 5 years ago, Jan Richardson wrote: When we suffer an agonizing loss, something of us goes into the grave. As we wrestle with our grief, we will be visited by questions about what new life waits for us. We will find ourselves faced with a choice: will we gather the graveclothes more tightly around ourselves, or will we respond to the voice of Christ, who stands at the threshold and calls us to come out? The choosing is not to be rushed. We need to give the …

We’ve traveled the distance across the history of our faith and blessings this morning: from Abram’s accepting a call to set out,  to Jesus’ encounter with a cautious Nicodemus, and finally intimations of his own crucifixion.  Relating John’s image of Jesus – on the cross, lifted up, – to that of Moses with the bronze serpent staff – raised to protect the Israelites from death by snake bite- theologian John Shea* wrote: “Humans are bitten by death. Jesus, Son of man, becomes death on the cross; If you see him lifted up, you can believe and receive eternal life… Divine …

First Sunday of Lent-February 26, 2023 Temptation bookends our liturgy of the word today.  In the reading from Genesis, we get the familiar story of Adam, Eve, the Serpent and that damned apple. And, I don’t know about you, but from my standpoint, the whole situation was a bit of a set up.  I mean, sure, God gave his first couple everything they might need in history’s first recorded nudist camp. Glorious surroundings, sustenance in the form of every imaginable fruit from every tree and each other for suitable companionship. And then, God throws this in.  “Oh and by the …

Holy Wisdom Monastery Ash Wednesday February 22, 2023 Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 Roberta Felker           Although I am retired, I remain a teacher in heart and habit.  And like many teachers, I am shamelessly opportunistic, especially when it comes to poetry. In the words of Woodrow Wilson, “I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow.” In this spirit, I am borrowing from the words of Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Mary Oliver, to ground today’s Ash Wednesday reflection about paying attention in order to see where our treasures lie. The …