Wednesday, March 25, 2019*

                                            Romans 5:4-5

we… 

boast 

in our 

sufferings, knowing that  suffering pro-

duces endurance, and endurance produces charac-ter, and character produces hope, 

and hope does not disappoint us, be-

cause God’s love has been poured into 

our hearts through the Holy Spirit that 

                         has been givento us

 * Charles Henry Brent 

       1862-1929  

  chaplain in WW I 

Bishop of the Phillipines & Western New York, he founded the first  

Episcopal Diocese in the

Philipines & spent 15 

years there.

 Lord Jesus Christ, 

you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that all might come within the reach of your saving embrace. So clothes us with your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of of you….” A Collect for Mission at Morning Prayer (BCP Pg101) written by Charles Brent

Saturday, March 23, 2019

                  ______________________Psalm 75 Antiphon_

  

   God  

   does  

   not 

   judge 

   by 

   what 

   the eye

   sees but in truth and equity. 

  * Gregory the 

Illuminator ~332

Bishop & mission-

ary of Armenia 

"Shine, we pray in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth your praise who called us out of darkness into your marvelous light." 

                        And tomorrow 

we remember *Óscar Romero,   

assassinated at the altar on March 24,1980 by the San Salvadoran Army for speaking out against poverty, social injustice poverty, and the absue of power.  He 

is celebrated along with the Martyrs of San Salvador, 4 Markknoll Sisters. 

“You cannot reap what you have not sown.  How are we going to reap love in our community 

if we only sow hate?”  

Wednesday, March 13, 2019*

                                     __Deuteronomy 9:21-22_ 

                     Then I 

                     took this

                     sinful 

                     thing

                     you had

                     made,

                     the calf,    

                     and burned 

                     it with fire

 and crushed it, 

grinding it thor-

oughly, until that 

was reduced  to

dust; and I threw 

the dust of it

into the stream

that runs down

the mountain.

* James Theodore Holly, 1829-1911 American born, our first African-American bishop Who established the church in 🇭🇹 Haiti and became the first Bishop of Haiti and 

the Dominican Republic.

A little background to the verse: after Moses had been up on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights, God had given him the two stone tablets with the law (the 10 commandments)  written on them. He then told Moses that the people had gotten tired of waiting for his return and his brother Aaron had gathered all the jewlrey together and had made it into a golden calf so they had Something to worship. (What’s a guy to do!?) God was pissed. This was Moses reponse after he’d thrown down the tablets and smashed them into smithereens,and had lain prostrate before the Lord, as before, for 40 days and 40 nights...

Tuesday, March 12, 2019*

                            _____Letter to the Hebrews 3:6_

            We 

            are

            God’s 

            house 

            if we 

            hold 

            firm

            the

            confidence and the pride 

                           that belong to hope

*Gregory the Great, 604, Bishop of Rome, servant of the servants of God 

(after whom Grogorian chant is named.) Accod-img to the Franciscan Media site, he is the patron saint of epilepsy, musicians, teachers, and of England, having sent Augustine to Canterbury, though he did not "bring" Christianity, since Celtic Christianty was already in the British Isles . 

        “The sacred Scriptures grow *

               with the one who reads them”

Friday March 1, 2019*

                       ________________Psalm 142:3a_

         

     When 

     my 

     spirit

    languishes 

    within me, you know my path 

David, 544  

  Bishop of 

Minerva,Wales

Monday, February 11, 2019*

                          _______________________________Psalm 80:7_

   

   Restore 

      us, O 

  God of

     hosts; 

      show 

 the light  

 of your countenance and we shall be saved.

  *  Frances Jane (Fanny) 

        Van Alstyne Crosby,

                1820-1915,

 “the most prolific writer of hymns and Gospel songs

in the American evange-

lical tradition in the 19th and early 20th cen-

turies,” including Blessed Assurance. Hav-

ing lost her sight as an infant, I went in 

search of a  light that could be

felt rather than seen. 

Saturday, February 2, 2019 The Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.

                                   _______John 8:32_

   









              
              If you 

              continue 

              in my 

              word…

              you will 

              know the

              truth and 

                    the truth will set you free.”

When I got up it was not yet raining,  so I went down to the 8 o’clock mass in Old Town, since it’s the  Presentation and we were electing the next  bishop today. (On the first ballot, a woman was elected from outside the Diocese, Susan Snook.)

     The priest was 

a pleasant round faced Nigerian but difficult to understand. It’s always so weird to be in a Roman mass because it’s like home but then when you get really cozy the words are just that much different. During his homily he said that the candle symbolizes the feast, and that the wax represented the physical body of Jesus which melts away in the course of his ministry.  (I forget what the wick represented.)  

     Afterwards I went across the street and had some breakfast sitting in front of the lit if fake fire, which was nice. And there as I read Morning Prayer I got my verse.   When I came home I went searching for an image of a lit taper. As I looked, I was amazed because I found very few pictures of real candles.  Mostly they were battery powered and it led me down some very interesting paths. What does that do to the image of Jesus melting away if what we have is not an actual  wax candle?  No fuss, no muss, no cleanup. No sacrifice . No reality. 

     I’ve been thinking a lot about the symbols we as Christians use -  what do they actually say about us and what we believe? What, for instance, does the hierarchical nature of the church say?  Is that what we we want to be saying? Does it reflect Jesus’ ideal of ministry?  

     One of the things the priest said was that 
“The light reveals what is already there."

Monday, January 21, 2019*

                                               ___________Psalm 23:4_

      

          Lead me

          in your 

          truth and  

          teach me,

          for you 

          are the 

          God of my 

          salvation;

          in you have I trusted 

                           all the day long. 

    * Agnes (Latin for lamb) was 12 when 

she was martyred at Rome in 304 under 

the Emporer Diocletian. 

On her feast day 2  lambs are blessed and the wool  woven in to a  scarf called a pallium with which the  Pope invests archbishops.

Gregory the Great 

gave such a pallium 

to Augustine, the first  

Archbishop of Canter-

bury whom he sent to 
England. It remains a
 feature of the coat of 
arms to thisday. (It's the
Y shaped thing on the left side of the shield.) 

Today in our 

national life 

we remember 

Martin Luther King

the preacher and 

civil rights worker 

assassinated in 1968.

Thursday evening

                                _______________John 6:5

  Jesus 

  asked… 

"Where

  are we 

  going 

  to buy bread for all these people to eat?" 

Thursday, January 4, 2019*

                                                             ___________Psalm 85:8___

            I will listen 

    to what the 

    Lord God is 

    saying, for 

    he who is 

    speaking   

    peace to  

    his faithful  people and tp o those 

          who turn their hearts to him.   

*William Passavant, 

1821-1894 Lutheran 

pastor & prophetic 

witness, who brought 

the Lutheran Deaconess 

movement to America.