An Episcopal Priest's Sermons, Prayers, and Reflections on Life, Becoming Human, and Discovering Our Divinity
With the First Sunday in Advent the Marian hymn following compline changed from the Salve Regina to the Alma Redemptoris Mater. This will be used until the Feast of the Presentation. There are two concluding collects: one for the Season of…
Read More Alma Redemptoris Mater
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, hail, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To you we cry, the banished children of Eve; to you we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn, then, most gracious…
The collect and readings for the Feast of the Annunciation may be found here. The appointed gospel is Luke 1:26-38. In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a…
The collect and readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent may be found here. The appointed gospel is Matthew 1:1-25. Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to…
Read More Scandals, Wombs, and Emmanuel – A Sermon on Matthew 1:18-25
Today, March 25, is the Feast of the Annunciation. In the days of creation of the world, when God was uttering his living and mighty “Let there be,” the word of the Creator brought creatures into the world. But on…
Read More The Feast of the Annunciation – Let it be.
"The Son of the Most High came and dwelt in me, and I became His Mother; and as by a second birth I brought Him forth so did He bring me forth by the second birth, because He put His Mother's garments on,…
Read More Hymns on the Nativity – St. Ephrem
Every year on the last Sunday of Advent, the Sunday before the Nativity, the lectionary presents us with a gospel concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is the Church’s reminder that the time of our salvation is approaching. In those…
Read More Advent 4C – Greeting our Coming Salvation
Today, November 1, is the Feast of All Saints. The collect and scriptures for today can be found here. The lectionary appoints John 11:23-44 as the gospel. As permitted by the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer I lengthened…
Read More A Sermon for the Feast of All Saints
Mary appeared to us as a sealed letter, in which were hidden the mysteries of the Son and his depth. She gave her body as a clean sheet; the Word wrote his essence on it, corporeally. The Son is the…
Read More The Virgin Mary, A Letter Sent by the Father
The Annunciation to the Theotokos (Luke 1:26-38) is an annunciation to the entire human race that the Son and Word of God has become incarnate. What happened physically in Mary happens spiritually in everyone who lives in virginity, that is,…
Read More Birthing God – The Feast of the Annunciation
Interrupting the Silence 