It is our nature to mark specific dates and times, not just the annual remembrance, but particularly those that seem somehow significant, whether numerically (5, 10, and so on) or personally, as when we passed the threshold when Mack had been gone from this world longer than he had been […]
Grief
112 posts
“Put the apocalypse back into Advent” is a phrase that has been making the rounds of the internet for the last few years, a riff on the “kept Christ in Christmas,” no doubt. For many Christians it is a curious concept, what can the apocalypse possible have to do with […]
This afternoon, 15 August 2022, the Frederick Buechner society posted the announcement below. This is a loss that I and thousands others will feel deeply. His writings and reflections led me to examine and express my faith more clearly than ever and I am forever thankful that I accidentally discovered […]
First reading and Psalm• 1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a• Psalm 42 and 43 Second reading• Galatians 3:23-29 Gospel• Luke 8:26-39
This is an entry in the “Acrostic Contemplations.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Memory is a fraught and fickle thing. What may seem certain and fixed in our minds as fact may be, to another rememberer, something entirely different. Something we may desperately […]
This is an entry in the “Acrostic Contemplations.” “Our Father, who art in heaven…” Fatherhood is a term referring to the state of being a father, not the biological fact of “fathering” a child, but rather the lived experience of being a father, engaged with and a part of rearing […]
This is an entry in the “Acrostic Contemplations.” (Not coincidentally, this post is delayed due to the events recounted in the opening paragraph.) ex·haus·tion | \ ig-ˈzȯs-chən \ a state of extreme physical or mental fatigue. the action or state of using something up or of being used up completely. […]
My back was sore as I scrambled off the floor and the pile of wrapped presents to slide onto the couch and pick up my glass of port. I stretched and observed to Elizabeth that it has been a really challenging fall. There were three main challenges that I had […]
Today in the Church Calendar1 we remember the slaughter of the Innocents by Herod (Matt. 2:13-18). There can never be justification or explanation sufficient for the death of the innocent, wherever and whenever, and I will make no efforts to do so. But the prayer that we offer in the […]
Those of us who grieve loved ones who are no longer with us view All Saints’ Eve and All Saints’ Day in a different way. We remember those who have gone before us, often too soon, and we try and do so in hope. The resurrection is that hope, “the […]