Reflections

Reflections
June 26, 2020 A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD,      make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up,      and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level,     …
Reflections
June 19, 2020 This week's reflection coincides with the Juneteenth holiday.  The observance and history of this day have not long been familiar to me.  I suspect that may be true for others. Juneteenth (a portmanteau blending "June" and "nineteenth") commemorates the day when, on June…
Reflections
June 12, 2020 "In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; … For the time is coming when people will not put…
Reflections
“A clinical researcher, a philanthropic strategist, a music teacher, a marketing manager, a monk, a clinical social worker, a registered nurse, a faith-based community organizer, and a public safety officer walk into a bar.”   It has become my tradition to begin diaconal ordinations with…
Reflections
I seem to have missed it, all these years. The story of Pentecost Day [Acts 2:1-21] is as familiar as any in the Bible. I’ve read it, and told it, countless times.  Here’s this great, global gathering.  A crowd of people “from every nation under heaven,” says the text that every lector…
Reflections
May 29, 2020 Jesus said: "I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have…
Reflections
May 22, 2020 Hello friends, Since moving back to Massachusetts six years ago, I have developed a sacred ritual.  Each year, late in May, I pack up a rake and a trash bag, a bucket and a scrub brush, and make the drive out to Bedford.  There I spend some quiet time tidying up the…
Reflections
May 15, 2020 Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he…
Reflections
May 8, 2020 Dear People of the Diocese of Massachusetts, I want to speak with you about sacramental hunger and eucharistic practice. The lengthening duration of church closures has made increasingly painful for all of us the accompanying fast from holy communion. I want to assure you that your…
Reflections
May 1, 2020 As the deer longs for the water-brooks,     so longs my soul for you, O God. My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God;     when shall I come to appear before the presence of God? ...I pour out my soul when I think on these things;     how I…