It might not be surprising that many people have a difficult time in accepting the Christmas Story, the story about the birth of Jesus , the One whom we call the Son of God. There is so much talk of strange and mysterious things happening, angels, prophecy, people following stars – admit it, some of this does sound a…..
In the Book of Genesis there is mention about how God put a rainbow in the sky to remind himself that he would never again destroy the earth. Some people tend to stress the words ‘with a flood’ – But I am one who thinks God doesn’t want to destroy the earth or anything that our Good Lord has created. …..
I have been reflecting on the Gospel Readings from the Daily Office, Year One Readings, as posted at www.missionstclare.com
Today’s Gospel Reading is Luke 1:39-48 and the verse that stood out to me is this:
And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the…..
The full passage is Matthew 3:1-12.
It seems we sometimes prefer to think that some of us are wheat and some of us are chaff. But if we are honest, we all have a little chaff on our souls.
When John was talking to the Pharisees and Sadducees he mentions ‘the wrath to come.’ Typically when we think of wrath, we think of a severe, out of control anger. If this wrath to come is from God, we should…..
New things, most of us love receiving and giving new things. During the Christmas and Holiday Seasons we are surrounded by new things every where we turn. New dolls and sleds, new toys and gadgets, new clothes, new books, new cars, new houses, new relationships (engagements, weddings).
If you’ve been a Christian for your entire life or most of it, the Christmas services may have lost some deeper sense of newness. Oh, the pageant might have new players, but…..
The full reading for today is Luke 22:1-13. In the reading we read about the difference in how people were referring to Jesus. It’s common for us to talk about the negative feelings and thoughts the scribes and Pharisees were having towards Jesus, or how one of Jesus’ disciples was planning to betray him. But this year it seems important to note that Jesus gave instruction to his disciples as to who and what to look for. They listened to…..
This is a prayer for conversion from hatred of the church to love for it. I wrote it many years ago when I learned about the persecuted church and how many people hate the Christian church. It’s not included in my book “Praying Our Way Through Stress: Drawing Wisdom from the Lord’s Life and Prayer” but I think that is what Saul did for three years before his name was changed to Paul.
“Heavenly Father, In your will and with…..
Years ago a young woman whom I worked with asked me why it was that the women in Jesus’ life went to the tomb so soon after Jesus died. Her question took me off guard and I could only answer that it must have been their grief. This young woman had come to my home…..
There are three Gospel readings for Holy Saturday. I’m being drawn to write briefly about Matthew 27:63. The Chief Priest and Pharisees call Jesus an ‘imposter’ and then tell Pilate they remember what Jesus said about rising in three days.
These are enemies of his and they remember some of the same things Jesus’ friends…..
