A Positively Poetic Priest

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Fourth Sunday in Lent BCP 219) As human beings, we have been making bread for tens of thousands of years. Even before the agricultural revolution, hunter gatherers were gathering grains and roots and mashing them up and cooking them for bread. Bread quite literally is the stuff of life for humans, as throughout most of our history, we have relied most heavily on bread, in all its varieties, to sustain us. It was natural and easy therefore for Jesus to use the metaphor for bread in describing himself as that which gives life to the world. In Hebrew the word for bread and the word for food are the same word! Even today, bread is still the staple food for most people in the world today. (Only here in America is o...

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Third Sunday in Lent BCP 218) Giving up our lives is a hard thing to do. Christianity asks us to give up our lives in service to Christ and in letting go of our egos through Christ. The world lures us in all sorts of ways to hold on desperately to our lives, as if we had the power to save ourselves. We don't. We know it when we are being honest with ourselves. But lets face it, its really easy not to be honest with ourselves. One of the best ways we can practice giving up ourselves is by the spiritual practices we do on our own and in community. Spiritual practices of prayer, giving, fa...