A Positively Poetic Priest

O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. (Seventh Sunday of Easter: The Sunday after Ascension Day BCP 226) The gospel stories tell that forty days after Jesus was resurrected, Jesus ascended into heaven. Luke shares two slightly different versions of Jesus' Ascension in the books of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. (Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:6-11) However, then there are another nine days until Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit. In the medieval church, these nine days were considered preparation days for the coming of the Holy Spirit and special prayers were created for preparation. This is where we get the term Novena, pertaining to nine days of preparation. Later tr...

Two years ago, when I moved here, I experienced a baptism by fire. For the first time ever, I hosted my family in MY home for Christmas. I don't know how you felt about it, but hosting Christmas in my house the first time for my family was a big deal, Which made me feel very pressured going into the Christmas season. I needed to make sure I had multiple rooms all done up properly. I needed to find all the dust in the house and get rid of it.  I had the nightmare of my mother coming to my house with the white gloves and running her finger along the mantel and making a face about my house cleaning skills... I needed to stock all the foods.  I have two twenty something year old brothers.  We are talking ALL the food. I needed to make sure I took care of our family traditions of having a pickle ornament for the tree and the particular Christmas morning CD we always listen to with the one wrong note in the seventh piece. I had to buy the ri...

12/7/18 John the Baptist Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Second Sunday of Advent BCP 211) Because we live in a time after Jesus' first coming, it does seem a little odd to be preparing for him to arrive. Yet, each year we hear and relive the proclamations of John the Baptist who was sent to prepare the people for Jesus' arrival. The coming of the Messiah was not going to be sudden or unannounced, John makes sure to tell everyone he can that the Messiah was coming and time was short to prepare. Thankfully, this remembrance of John the Baptist and the season of Advent allows us time each year to prepare again for the coming of Jesus into our hearts and lives. When we truly open our li...