Month: October 2007

There are a variety of historical origins of Halloween (or All Hallows/Saints Eve), from the ancient Celtic Festival of Samhein, which was all about the dead visiting the living, to the pious Christian celebration of those who have gone before us-beginning with fasting and ending with baptisms and high liturgy. Many Christians have their knickers […]

“Pray with the gift of tears, so that through sorrowing you may tame what is savage in your soul…Prayer is the flower of gentleness and of freedom from anger. Prayer is the fruit of joy and thankfulness. Prayer is the remedy for gloom and despondency. ‘Go and sell all that you have and give it […]

St. Makarios of Alexandria, who Tradition says was a successful merchant of fruits and pastries, left everything in 355 to be a monk. It is said about Makarios that ‘for seven years he lived on raw vegetables dipped in water with a few crumbs of bread, moistened with drops of oil on feast days. It […]

Or Both? (This is not our roof by the way!) Our parish is in the proverbial (actually literal) ‘fix the roof’ situation; we have a roof in need of serious repair costing $92 thousand and at the same time we also have great potential for evangelical and justice ministry in our urban parish that has […]

Whenever I run into this quote I simply cannot resist posting it: “Let yourself be persecuted, but do not persecute others. Be crucified, but do not crucify others. Be slandered, but do not slander others. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep: such is the sign of purity. Suffer with the […]

 There is a Hebrew prayer, “Tikkun Olam” which is simply a request for God to ‘repair, fix or heal the world.’  There is an old Rabbinic Tale that says, in creation, the universe was unable to contain the Divine Light of God and therefore it cracked into pieces.  Henceforth, the creation was imperfect and the […]