Category: Theological reflection
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Us and Them
The Sixth Sunday of Easter—May 10, 2026 Note: I may revise this post later in the week. I had nearly finished it when my computer restarted for software updates and while the site keeps saying, “auto-saving,” it apparently did no such thing. Among the various images portraying Paul’s speech to…
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Iona
A serious omission! I didn’t share this poem here. My poem “Iona” was published on Earth & Altar in December 2024, and I don’t seem to have posted it here on this blog! So here goes. You can read it on Earth & Altar‘s site here:https://earthandaltarmag.com/posts/iona (St. Columcille is better…
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Doing Jesus’ works
The Fifth Sunday of Easter—May 3, 2026 I find it weirdly fitting that the feast of St. Stephen falls the day after Christmas, as if to remind us that the Incarnation of Christ has implications. We are now on the other end of Jesus’ earthly life, and his sojourn to…
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When we can’t tell Christ from Hermes
The Fourth Sunday of Easter—April 26, 2026 In today’s epistle, someone writing as St. Peter reminds Christians who are suffering for their faith that Christ also suffered unjustly, entrusting himself to God. In doing so, he set a model for us. While early Christians were sometimes persecuted, it was far…
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Learning a new way to see
The Third Sunday of Easter—April 19, 2026 In his 1991 book of essays, AfterCulture: Detroit and the Humiliation of History, Jerry Herron writes about a paradox that was true several decades before and after his book came out: Detroit, in national media, was portrayed both as an empty space and…
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Alive, with scars to prove it
The Second Sunday of Easter, Year A—April 11, 2026 The Second Sunday of Easter is sometimes called “Lowsunday” or “Low Sunday,” referring to attendance in church. Not only the twice-a-year attendees, but even the most faithful congregants seem to be tapped out from the prior week or six. Even more…
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The Great Triduum
Years A, B, and C Since the readings are the same every year, I’m not going to address them directly in this post. Next year, or the year after, I will. Maundy Thursday—April 2, 2026Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-141 Corinthians 11:23-26John 13:1-17, 31b-35Psalm 116:1, 10-17 For the Triduum, I can’t think…
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No Kings Sunday?
Palm Sunday (Sunday of the Passion), Year A—March 29, 2026 The Liturgy of the PalmsMatthew 21:1-11; Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29The Liturgy of the WordIsaiah 50:4-9a; Philippians 2:5-11; Matthew 26:14- 27:66 or Matthew 27:11-54; Psalm 31:9-16 We call it Jesus’ “Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem,” but to read the description in the Gospels, that’s…
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Borrowing Light
A poem for the latter part of Lent Recently published in Earth & Altar. Go give them some traffic—there’s a lot of great stuff to read in addition to the poetry. When I was in grad school, I worked as a verger at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. The cathedral proper…
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I mean, Jesus was a day late, too!
The Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year A—March 22, 2026 The weekend got away from me; I’m posting this a day late. (Sound familiar, though?) I have a beautifully creepy song for you to listen to while you read this—or, better yet, to close your eyes and listen to. It’s based…
The Sound 