An Episcopal Priest's Sermons, Prayers, and Reflections on Life, Becoming Human, and Discovering Our Divinity
From you, our God who is before eternity, became a child! He has made your womb His throne, making it more spacious than the heavens. In you, O woman full of grace, all creation exults. Glory to you! (Joseph Raya,…
Read More The Womb that Contains What the Heavens Cannot
Tonight at our celebration of the Feast of St. Philip we will bless our icon, The Protection of Philip. The icon shows Jesus and St. Philip standing together. Jesus is on the right side of the icon with his right arm around…
Read More Blessing of an Icon – The Protection of Philip
How interesting that today, December 21, just four days before Christmas, we celebrate the Feast of St. Thomas, the Apostle. Think of Thomas and most will think about “Doubting Thomas.” Before we can get to the Nativity of our Lord, the…
Read More St. Thomas and St. Joseph, Faithful Doubters
The Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1-13) describes the day of Pentecost as accompanied by “a sound like the rush of a violent wind.” “Divided tongues, as of fire,” appeared and rested on each of the disciples who began to…
Read More The Icon of Pentecost
In the Episcopal lectionary the gospel for this past Sunday (John 12:20-33) has some Greeks coming to Philip and saying, "Sir we wish to see Jesus." Philip tells Andrew of this request and together they tell Jesus. I suspect Jesus'…
If, as I suggested in the previous post, we all have and venerate icons then maybe there is a corollary to be considered. How are we also iconoclasts? What images have we and do we continue to destroy? Iconoclasm is…
"Show me the icons that you venerate, that I may be able to understand your faith." - John of Damascus As I watched the inaugural events of this week and especially today's inauguration I was reminded that we are surrounded…
Read More What are your icons?
“What can we bring you, O Christ, for having been born for us on earth as a man? Each creature, the work of your hands, offers you a sign of gratitude: the angels, their hymn; the heavens, the star; the…
Read More The Feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ
This is a traditional icon of The Nativity. The early church used icons to tell the story—theology in imagery. There is so much to tell and to be seen! For starters, notice that Joseph is off to the bottom left.…
Read More The Icon of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ
Interrupting the Silence 