God, I’m getting ready for the children’s sermon,and I’ve collected the “icky” animalsfrom around the house,and I can’t seem to find the insects,(which is what extinction may be all about), but I am going for what “unclean” is,so I need a mosquito with the skunk and shark. And I am going to tell their parents… Read More
Saturday Prayer, May 7, 2022,
God, I am grateful,not for the adviceof those who built houses on rock,but for one floating boardof someone’s sand-disasterI was able to grab,anonymous at a meeting. I am grateful,not for the good soil gardenwith rabbit-ground-hog-proof fence,but the unexpected beautyof tulip bulbs rising fromfall leaves, dog poop and thorns. I am grateful, not just for samaritans,but… Read More
Saturday Prayer – Living with Doubt
John 20: 29b – Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe. Holy One, it is strangeto think of doubt at the same timeas we are cryingHallelujah! He is risen!But we are living with it We feel it whenwe watch the newsand see what is happeningin Ukrainewe ask ourselveswhy you… Read More
Thursday Prayer, April 14, 2022, Maundy Thursday
God, you are in the details,not of all my plans for this holy season,but of the story of communitythat blesses me differently every year. Open to me, and to some, even one,of those whose sacred momentsI hope to un-tenebrae,so they experience your presence – the vulnerability of a foot,in bunion and blister,and worn by every… Read More
Thursday Prayer, April 7, 2022
God, every day I hunt for joy,in the all-glory-laud-and-honor storyof the entrance to Jerusalem,while the southern United Statesneeds the storms stilled,gun tragedy after gun tragedycalls for the things that make for peace,and Ukraine defines Via Dolorosa, and you put Luke before me,because there are only coats on the ground –not boots, not broken branches. Maybe… Read More
Friday Prayer, January 7, 2022
Many of us wake up this particular morning-after with liturgical hangover from all that Advent, Solstice,Christmas, Kwanzaa, Watchnight, New Years and Epiphany. Let’s pray. God, we rise from a sleep under stars,that are just stars –amazing, incredible, glorious stars! There are so many of them now,and we are remindedthat the people of earth have followeddifferent… Read More
Wednesday Prayer, December 15, 2021
God, we pray for all who wait,even longer than our Advent –Simeons and Annas,long waiting with no star,no singing, except their own song,of birth and death –like many people I visit in assisted living, and innkeepering essential workerswho meet danger at the doorevery single day,and are always expected to do more,and criticized when they cannot,… Read More
Saturday Prayer, November 20, 2021
A friend I’ve not seen for years, Rev. Felix Carrion, used to have a sermon call-and-response which went …Where are you? Here! “What time is it? Now. November 20 each year is two commemorations: Universal Children’s Day, recommitting to 1959 UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child, and International Transgender Remembrance Day which grieves… Read More
Saturday Prayer, November 6, 2021
God, I pray for a voice like the tui,so I can speak, not to others, but with them,adapting erudite languageor insider jargon,to clear wordsand compassionate ones. I don’t want to lose who I am, but gain a second blending voice boxfor my pastoral prayersand prayers by bedsides,for sermons and street protestsand for reading a child… Read More
Saturday Prayer, September 18, 2021
At the Rhiannon Giddens concert God, I’m grateful for the womanwith songs from her Black heritage,Indigenous, Gaelic, Southern heritage,and her insistence on caringfor the safety of listeners. I am grateful for restaurantswhere I sit outdoors,libraries and local storesstill with curbside pickup,ventilated, “time-visit” museums,strained, stressed, creative schools,(and the saints who work in them), church staff and… Read More