An Episcopal Priest's Sermons, Prayers, and Reflections on Life, Becoming Human, and Discovering Our Divinity
What is the most shocking part of today’s gospel (Matthew 1:18-25, Advent 4A)? What’s the thing that makes you wonder whether it really happened the way Matthew describes? What’s the hardest part to believe? For most people, I suspect, the…
Read More The Scandal We Long For – A Sermon on Matthew 1:18-25
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
O most Holy Virgin, he who gives you venerable and glorious titles does not fail to tell the truth; on the contrary, it falls short of your worthiness. Look on us benevolently from heaven! Govern us with peace; guide us,…
Read More Prayer and Praise to the Blessed Virgin Mary
What if we really believed God is uniquely present and active in the circumstances of each of our lives, speaking a word? What if we truly believed there would be a fulfillment of the word spoken? What if instead of…
Read More Believing Like Mary and Elizabeth
Jesus “breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22). Recall a moment when you held another person so close that you could hear his or her breathing, the sound of life. Maybe it was your…
Read More God’s Conspiracy Gives Life
Today, August 15, is the Feast of St. Mary. As the one who on earth stood in the most intimate relationship with the incarnate Son of God, she, of all the human race, must have the place of highest honor…
Read More Magnifying Mary; It Is Truly Meet.
The Feast of the Presentation of our Lord is the hinge between Christmas and the cross. It holds in tension life and death, light and darkness, the salvation Simeon sees in the child and the sword that will pierce Mary’s…
The collect and readings for the Third Sunday of Advent may be found here. The following sermon focuses on the gospel, John 1:6-8, 19-28. There are, today’s gospel suggests, two ways of approaching life and God’s presence in the world.…
Read More Witnesses and Interrogators – A Sermon on John 1:6-8, 19-28; Advent 3B
Today, August 15, is one of the great Marian feast days. The Eastern Orthodox call it the Feast of the Dormition while Roman Catholics call it the Feast of the Assumption. They deal with the same event but the interpretation…
Read More The Feast of St. Mary the Virgin, Dormition, and Assumption
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…
Interrupting the Silence 