A Positively Poetic Priest

"action, not words" but, oh! the words! the red words the ones which bring connection through letters novels, stories spoken, written not half symbolized text messages feel the depth in the true words the true actions born from humanity, not automation 12/31/17

Ephphatha. Be opened. Ephphatha is a funny word to our ears. In Aramaic it means to be opened. Aramaic was the language Jesus spoke most of the time. It is characteristic of the gospel of Mark that we hear the words Jesus used, instead of being translated into Greek and then English. There is an understanding in Mark that the words of Jesus are powerful. Words do have power, that is true, though not in the same way as some people in the ancient world understood them. They weren't magical. However, it is interesting that Mark was concerned about representing the words Jesus used. Ephphatha. Be opened. The woman in the story from the gospel passage was certainly ready to be open. I imagine that by this point in her life, she was at the end of her rope with trying to help her daughter. I'm sure over the years, she had tried everyone. The physicians, the local healing woman, the priests, and nothing had worked to this point. She was prob...

Sometimes it is the simplest words that are the hardest  when you stare at 'that' trying to figure out if it's always been spelled that way and when did you realize it has 'hat' in it? Mostly these days it's the meanings the meanings hitting you in the face totally obscured what does it mean to trust? to love? to hold? to miss? to hold something when the nuclei of your atoms  and the atoms of its substance never meet and yet you know you can feel the shape of it, the feel of it against your arm what does growing up do to us? Maturity? Knowledge? Age? The long and winding road speaks volumes in its name I seek a way to wisdom instead, alas a chore Definition is too brutish for such elegance, away away with words layered upon each other! sink into the wisdom of this moment  sink into the feeling of connection sink into the colors of creation sink into the silence of salvation home

Getting ordained was amazing. In an overwhelming drowning and breathing for the first time kind of way. I was being held and weighed and tested all at the same time. I could see all the details and yet there was a hot haze of joy and nervousness and the weight of giving up oneself and one's life at the tender young age of twenty five. This is my wisdom, to know who I am and how I can be myself in this world. I make my prayer, help me Lord, and then the weight is gone, freedom seems confusing. Yet joy bursts its grapefruit delight through all else and life goes on. Actions speak louder than words. I have always believed this to be true. Especially when it comes to men. That is how I let go of most of the crap that my brothers say to me. I believe that "Love does," as Bob Goff writes, and that "service is worship," as the vergers pledge, and "well done is better than well said," as that infamous Benjamin Franklin said. (Funny story: When Sara and I w...