Third Sunday of Advent December 11, 2012 Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 Psalm 126 or Luke 1:46b-55 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 John 1:6-8, 19-28 Prayer of the Day Stir up the wills of your faithful people, Lord God, and open our ears to the words of your prophets, that, anointed by your Spirit, we may testify to your [...]
Advent II: The Grass Withers
4 Dec by
Second Sunday of Advent December 4, 2012 Isaiah 40:1-11 Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13 2 Peter 3:8-15a Mark 1:1-8 Prayer of the Day Stir up our hearts, Lord God, to prepare the way of your only Son. By his coming strengthen us to serve you with purified lives; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives [...]
Advent I: What Fruit Remains
27 Nov by
First Sunday of Advent November 27, 2011 Isaiah 64:1-9 Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 Mark 13:24-37 Prayer of the Day Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. By your merciful protection waken us to the threatening dangers of our sins, and keep us blameless until the coming of your new day, for you [...]
The Open Door
9 Oct by
After a week of ordinary and inevitable failures, sins, and missed opportunities, I’m content to remember in whose hands salvation lies and who invites us in to his Sabbath rest. Psalm 84 talks about being a doorkeeper in God’s house. I suspect I’ve occasionally been more like the malodorous bum lying on the steps, preventing [...]
The Descent to God
2 Oct by
This month, while Chaplain Mike is on sabbatical, Jeff has asked me to provide some Sunday meditations. I find that daunting. I’m not a scholar or a preacher, but I’ll give you the best I have. Ironically, the best I have is other people’s words, but these are words that have taken up residence in [...]
Goodbye to a Friend
13 Sep by
Goodbye to a Friend I said goodbye to a friend today. He lay in front of a room of friends. Draped over the front of his casket, two baseball jerseys — Reds and Yankees, And his favorite coffee cup sat upon his Bible next to them. A deck of cards had been placed near his [...]
Another Look: The Family (a trilogy)
16 Aug by
By Chaplain Mike Originally posted in April, 2010 • • • THE FAMILY (A Trilogy) I. The Younger Here I am, father, at the eleventh hour once more, Reaper’s scythe poised to harvest fruit of seeds I’ve sown. Shamefaced, knowing full well the paucity of yield, I slump low with downcast eyes, near resigned to [...]
“A Meeting” (Wendell Berry)
21 Jul by
A Meeting In a dream I meet my dead friend. He has, I know, gone long and far, and yet he is the same for the dead are changeless. They grow no older. It is I who have changed, grown strange to what I was. Yet I, the changed one, ask: “How you been?” He [...]
Take that, Milton
14 Jul by
Blame Jeff, not me. Okay, blame me as well for all the quoting of Dante I do on here, which is probably what put the idea into his head. So now you are going to be afflicted with what is most definitely not a reasoned work of considered literary criticism, so beware and be warned. [...]
Trinity Sunday
19 Jun by
By Chaplain Mike Today’s Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20 in this bed, two lovers fumbled as they found their way and it was holy when they knelt beside this bed to pray it kept them warm through many nights of cold, elusive fear when tender sweet caresses answered softly falling tears some secrets whispered in this bed [...]
