Hymn 487 in the Episcopal Hymnal. Words: George Herbert (1593 - 1633) Music : The Call, Ralph Vaughn Williams (1872 - 1958)

How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14. 1 - 12 In John's gospel today, Jesus says something that is often misconstrued as a message of exclusivity when it is actually immensely inclusive. A short essay by C. S. Lewis called Meditation in a Toolshed "sheds light" on the inclusivity of Jesus' words. In it, Lewis tells the story of entering a toolshed and coming upon a beam

I shall fear no evil; *for you are with me; Psalm 23 On this Good Shepherd Sunday, the readings are all associated with ways we are shepherded by God and protected from the outside forces that endanger us as Sheep of His Flock. Psalms for Praying: An Invitation to Wholeness is a little book I have used for many years. It is a collection of psalms rephrased by Nan Merrill so they are more conducive for reflection and meditation. Every week in our Centering Prayer class, we rea

On that final night, his meal was formal: lamb with bitter leaves of endive, chervil, bread with olive oil and jars of wine. Now on Tiberias’ shores he grills a carp and catfish breakfast on a charcoal fire. This is not hunger, this is resurrection: he eats because he can, and wants to taste the scales, the moist flakes of the sea, to rub the salt into his wounds. by Michael Simmons Roberts, Corpus In this season of Resurrection (capital R), we are called to remember that w

Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,/ darkness be over me, my rest a stone;/ yet in my dreams I'd be/ nearer, my God, to thee; Last night a small group of us gathered for a "Last Dinner on the Titanic" party to remember what it might have been like on that night April 14th 114 years ago at dinner before the great ship sank. We dressed and acted as people who were on the ship...Madeline Astor, Dorothy Gibson, Major Archibald Butt and even Captain Edward Smith. It was

Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." John 20. 19 - 31 As the child of a naval aviator who participated in astronaut rescues from the sea over the years, I have followed space exploration for a long time. However, I have no memory of such joy coming from space as we have seen on this Artemis II mission. As a local feature writer in Jacksonville said this morning, "Our space news is better than earth news." From the first interviews of the four astr

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, * the moon and the stars you have set in their courses, What is man that you should be mindful of him? * the son of man that you should seek him out? You have made him but little lower than the angels; * you adorn him with glory and honor; Psalm 8 Father James Martin, American Jesuit priest and writer, quoted this psalm recently in his description of the splendor of the pictures from the Artemis II crew as they travell

"Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, Luke 24. 13 - 35 I cannot read this story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus without envisioning the piercing gaze of this Servant Girl from Velázquez' painting and thinking about the stunning words of Denise Levertov's poem. The servant girl recognized his voice and remembered that she had been seen by him. Before the disciples know who he is, she knows and listens intently waiting for them

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?’ Acts 2. 36. - 41 In today's reading from Acts, Peter struggles to convince the people that the Jesus whom they crucified is now Risen. "God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified," he says. The little line which they are recorded saying "they were cut to the heart" struck me today. Sort of like the cock crowing for Peter

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord" John 20. 18 In a magnificent Easter sermon yesterday, the Reverend Scott Brown suggested that the five most important words of the Easter gospels are "I have seen the Lord." In conversation after the sermon, Scott asked the parishioners what that statement might mean to them. My response was to ask "how, when, where, what, why?" What has happened in us when we can say "I have seen the Lord?" In many