I haven’t updated you for a while on my friends Alan and Jackie Paskow, former St. Mary’s colleagues. Alan has been suffering from terminal cancer for close to three years now, and Julia and I visit every Sunday night. Julia performs Reiki massage on Jackie while Alan and I talk. This past Sunday, while […]
Tag Archives: Religion
A Tiny Seed Can Save a Church
Spiritual Sunday Like many mainline Protestant churches, our little Episcopalian congregation in St. Mary’s City, Maryland is having money difficulties. The expense of aging buildings plus a recession that wiped out much of our endowment has forced us to hold fairly continuous fundraisers to balance the budget. People have become testy and […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Brothers Karamazov, Church, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nature, Spirituality Comments closed
Lost Paradise Syndrome in Tucson
Spiritual Sunday As I teach Beowulf for the umpteenth time, I am struck once again by its beautiful rendition of the Genesis creation story. I’m also struck by how the invocation of that beauty calls forth human horror. Exploring the linkage provides some insight into the mass killings we have almost come to expect. The […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beowulf, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Tucson killings, violence Comments closed
Epiphany from a Camel’s Point of View
Scott Bates’s version of the epiphany focuses on a camel’s point of view. This camel doesn’t end up in Bethlehem but his work is no less holy.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Fable of the Third Christmas Carol", Epiphany, Scott Bates, T. S. Eliot Comments closed
Inside These Wrappings, a Brighter Life
Spiritual Sunday Yesterday we had a white Christmas in Sewanee, Tennessee, where I am visiting my parents. The world was brown when we went to bed and white when we awoke. The symbolism of Christmas snow lies in the promise of wiping everything clean and starting anew. Grace appears to enter our fallen world. That’s […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Messiah (Christmas Portions), Christmas, James Baldwin, Mark Doty, Music, Sonny's Blues Comments closed
What Can I Give Him? Give Him My Heart
Spiritual Sunday Snow currently blankets southern Maryland as we enter the final days leading up to Christmas, making this the perfect time to print Christina Rossetti’s gorgeous poem, “In the Bleak Midwinter.”I love how it begins with hard and cold images and concludes with a simple gift of the heart. Although God is worshipped by […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Christina Rossetti, Christmas, Julian of Norwich, Winter Comments closed
Consolation Prize: Mary, Queen of Heaven,
Spiritual Sunday Today, as a member of my church choir, I participate in our service of Lessons and Carols (an indication that they will let anyone sing, especially if he is a guy). One of our featured songs is a lyric that I teach in my medieval literature survey. “Adam Lay Bound” is a beautifully […]
