Church of the MediatorEaster II (RCL Cycle B) 7 April 2024 “I believe in order to know, and I know in order to believe.” —St. Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033– 1109). Happy Easter! The second Sunday in the Great Fifty Days of Easter is always given to two separate but equally important resurrection appearances. The first appearance Jesus […]
Sunday of the Resurrection (RCL Cycle B) 31 March 2024 Happy Easter! Today is Easter! To be correct, today is the Sunday of our Lord’s Resurrection. Today we begin a Fifty-day celebration that will come to its culmination in the Feast of Pentecost when the Church celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is […]
Christmas 24 December 2023 Merry Christmas! On 10th November 1942 at the Lord Mayor’s luncheon at Mansion House in London, Sir Winston Churchill addressed the gathering after receiving the news of the victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein made this statement: I have never promised anything but blood, tears, toil, and sweat. Now, […]
Good Friday 29 March 2024 After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. […]
Ash Wednesday (RCL Cycle B) 14 February 2024 Ashes — charcoal black, smoothed grit, damped by a bit of oil, spread lavishly or stingily across a smooth brow. Some of us will pray for just a tiny smudge, not a glaring cross; others move silently down the aisle, happy to be marked outrageously, bits of […]
Lent III (RCL Cycle B) 3 March 2024 This morning’s readings begin a dramatic turn that will take Jesus and us ultimately to Jerusalem and the events of Holy Week. The reading from John’s Gospel places us in the Temple where we witness Jesus driving out the money changers and other merchants. John places this […]
What is “soaking prayer”? Perhaps, like many things, it depends upon who you ask. Ask 10 people, you may get 10 different answers. So, what is meant by the term at the Church of the Mediator? That answer is simple. It is time spent in personal prayer without distractions. So once a week, we take […]
Troubled Times (From 2022) Happy Easter! This is the Sunday before Ascension Day. The Ascension is a day that is easy to ignore. It takes place on a Thursday (a lot of Episcopal congregations have their mid-week service on Wednesday). When I was a student at Nashotah House, Ascension Day was celebrated with great […]
Hearing the Shepherd’s Voice (From May 8, 2022) Happy Easter! Today is “Good Shepherd Sunday. Every year on this fourth Sunday of Easter we hear Jesus’ description of himself as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. The story is told in A Treasury of Jewish Folklore: Stories, Traditions, […]
(From May 1, 2022) Happy Easter! This morning we’re back in Galilee where the story began. Peter announces that he is going fishing and the other disciples join him. According to John the Evangelist, this is the third appearance of the Risen Christ. Here, on the shores of the Sea of Tiberias, Jesus not […]