Exaltation of the Holy Cross

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Christ on CrossSeptember 14th is the date established for a feast that recognizes the Cross as the instrument upon which our salvation was won by Jesus Christ. This feast is called in Greek Ὕψωσις τοῦ Τιμίου καὶ Ζωοποιοῦ Σταυροῦ (“Raising Aloft of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross”) and in Latin Exaltatio Sanctae Crucis. In English, the 3rd Edition of the Roman Missal restored the traditional name, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, replacing the 1972 nomenclature of the Triumph of the Cross. When the feast day falls on a Sunday (e.g. 2014 and 2025) it replaces the Sunday celebration of Ordinary Time. Continue reading →

Understanding

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jesus-and-disciplesThis coming Sunday is the 2th Sunday of Ordinary Time with the Gospel taken from Mark 9:30-37. In the account, Jesus tells the disciples, again, of his impending passion, death and rising from the tomb. Our text for this morning: “They left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. He was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him. (Mark 9:30-32) Continue reading →

Fatigue

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In the dark days of December with the pandemic raging, we hoped for the availability of vaccinations. Vaccinations were announced, the infections seem to be retreating, we began to make plans for travel after the long discontent for our masks, restrictions, and the new normal which we hoped would not become normal at all. And then vaccinations slowed, masks were dropped, the Delta variant spread, fights broke out on airlines, governors levied fines against businesses requiring vaccines even as they claimed federal overreach, and the late summer saw an epic rise among the unvaccinated. A night show host, joking one hopes, suggested that unvaccinated people at the hospital should be a lower triage level than vaccinated people. Schools restarted, closed, went virtual, were protested for requiring and not requiring masks. Nobody likes wearing a mask. Why isn’t everyone vaccinated? What happened to personal liberty? Isn’t this supposed to be over.

But whatever your take on all of this, we are tired – we have pandemic fatigue. Continue reading →

The Memorial of St. John Chrysostom

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St-John-ChrysostomToday is the memorial for St. John Chrysostom, a bishop and doctor of the Church. He lived in the late 4th and early 5th centuries and his held as one of the Three Holy Hierarchs of the Byzantine Church along with Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus. John garnered the moniker Chrysostom (“golden tongue”) because of his oratory skills. John also be came quite popular because of his eloquence, his insights and  passion in his public speaking at the Golden Church, Antioch’s cathedral. Especially popular was his insightful expositions of Bible passages and moral teaching. He emphasized charitable giving and was concerned with the spiritual and temporal needs of the poor. He spoke against abuse of wealth and personal property: Continue reading →

Preparing the Disciples

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jesus-and-disciplesThis coming Sunday is the 2th Sunday of Ordinary Time with the Gospel taken from Mark 9:30-37. In the account, Jesus tells the disciples, again, of his impending passion, death and rising from the tomb. And as we move further into the liturgical year, it should become evident that there are fewer demonstrations of power and teaching authority, although they will continue to occur, e.g., the healing of the boy with demon (Mark 9:19-29). The emphasis is ever on preparing his disciples for the time when Jesus will not be among them in an earthly form. The text for this Sunday is commonly referred to as Christ’s second passion/resurrection prediction. Between the first set of prediction/instructions and our Sunday gospel we have following gospel stories from St. Mark: Continue reading →

The Hinterlands

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There has always been ocean lore that proclaims rogue, monster waves rising 80, 90, or 100 feet high or more. Of course, these are not eye-witness accounts. Men in wooden ships don’t survive such an encounter. There was the story of the Alaskan Tlingit Indian woman who returned from berry picking to find her entire village disappeared. The debris field evidence on the shoreline indicated that the ocean had risen up and fell upon the village. The wave would have been more than 100 feet high to cause the damage. Experts of the day dismissed stories about such waves because they seemingly violated basic principles of ocean physics. Continue reading →

The Next Step

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While each of the gospel writers has their own style, pace and priorities – each is a masterful storyteller. Each weaves the accounts and stories into a meta-narrative that reveals something about the person of Jesus and thus is revelatory about the person of God. If your only encounter with the gospels is here on Sunday – while any encounter is a good one – you’re missing the whole of the narrative, missing the ebb and flow. It is like trying to understand the beauty of a quilt by staring into one patch. The one patch is beautiful, the stitching elaborate, but you miss the larger pattern, the greater beauty. Continue reading →

Vermeer

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Johannes Vermeer has always been one of my favorite artists. Many of the Vermeer paintings are held in private collections and so it is not often that a Vermeer exhibit is available showcasing his works at a single location. The National Gallery of Art was able to hold one in the 1990s that I was able to attend. It was magnificent. The NY Time Weekender has a very interesting piece on the restoration work of some Vermeer paintings and what they are discovering a later hand covered up. Back in May, CNN also had an interesting piece on Vermeer. Continue reading →

A morning in September

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The image above is the amazing pool where I am able to swim. I am there several days a week, most often at 5:00 am before the swim teams arrive. I also try to swim first thing Saturday mornings at 7:00 am. During this time of pandemic the facility (The Rouse Swim and Sports Center) has been sparsely used. But this morning, upon exiting the pool, the parking lot was filled to overflowing. There is more than the pool at the sports complex Continue reading →

Two decades later

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Everyone remembers 9/11 differently. 93% of Americans over the age of 30 remember where they were and what they were doing when they received the news. For Americans 25 and under, the number drops of 42%. For Americans 20 years and younger, they were not yet born or not old enough to have a memory. Nonetheless 9/11 affected the nation. Want to know more? Read the Pew Research Center’s Two Decades Later, the Enduring Legacy of 9/11. Here and at your parish may we all actively remember and pray with and for 9/11 family members, survivors, and rescue and recovery workers for their service and healing.

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