Spiritual Sunday St. Valentine, who has evolved into the patron saint of lovers, was beheaded by the Romans for (among other things) marrying Christian couples. As Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, I turn to that most erotic of books in the Bible, Song of Songs (also know as Song of Solomon).Some, unnerved by its unbridled sensuality, have […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]
