Dear Alan and Wendy, We just wanted to say how much we appreciate you and all the time you put towards our special day. We were honored to have you there celebrating and marrying us in the presence of God surrounded by our friends and family. I know my Grand-daddy and Uncle were smiling down… Continue reading
So, at last… A Museum of Failures. When we obsess about our failures we become captured by them but when we acknowledge, consider and accept our failures they can become springboards for new and functional growth and success. This applies to our lives and to all our relationships! Ask St. Peter… Sweden’s Museum of Failures… Continue reading
Embrace change – embrace life! https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/21/style/modern-love-to-stay-married-embrace-change.html?_r=0 A couple of years ago, it seemed as if everyone I knew was on the verge of divorce. “He’s not the man I married,” one friend told me. “She didn’t change, and I did,” said another. And then there was the no-fault version: “We grew apart.” Emotional and physical… Continue reading
Today’s sermon is about dear, dear Thomas who over the centuries has earned the sobriquet “The Doubter.” As with all the apostles, I can identify with Thomas; I share with him flashes of insight and shadows of despair (faith and doubt.) Recently I watched the harrowing, inspiring film “Silence”, during the film I heard this… Continue reading
I need not, but I will admit, that an Easter Vigil service rates not highly on my list of liturgical “must-do’s.” Maybe this reluctant acceptance is due to personal history, theological concerns, a pedantic search for consistency, pastoral matters and… laziness. Nevertheless, my good friend and Rector Anne Marie Richards (armed with this knowledge) invited… Continue reading
This morning (at 9am) the teaching series on “Hospitality” continues, today “Hospitality of the Mind.” Closed hearts tend to be inhospitable and so do closed minds. The spiritual vocation to renewal is a vocation to consider, even consider again, new ideas and new perspectives. Again it is important to consider what it is that makes… Continue reading
Another good class yesterday, engaging and enlightening. Here are the notes that were the basis for our conversation; we thought again a little about what it is that makes it difficult for us to be hospitable. I am grateful to a close friend for reminding me of the central theme of Hospitality on Homer’s… Continue reading
About a week ago, I received a note from someone that I knew in Philadelphia. Towards the end of an essay he included the words below; they will be always very special because they speak to me of an openness to God that I hope I will never, never lose both in personal and professional… Continue reading
Below the sermon audio is the sermon text; the passage from John 3 with its talk of being “born again” and of “God so loving the world…” suffers the danger of over-familiarity. Please God, let it not be so. After the sermon, I suggested that some people might be puzzled, challenged, concerned about the sermon;… Continue reading
Yesterday we began a five-part series on the divine vocation to be radically hospitable and truly welcoming. Following weeks “Hospitality of Heart” (3/12), “Hospitality of Mind” (3/19), “Hospitality of Time” (3/26) and “God as Guest” (4/2). In the opening conversation we acknowledged that sometimes what matters is a committed and earnest intention to be hospitable… Continue reading