Santos Woodcarving Popsicles

It is not the critic who counts...

2012-01-28T14:05:00.001-05:00

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”~Theodore Roosevelt

T.S. Eliot reads Journey of the Magi

2012-01-06T08:38:00.003-05:00

T.S. Eliot reads Journey of the Magi

T.S. Eliot's Journey of the Magi

2012-01-06T08:36:00.001-05:00

'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sore-footed, 
     refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the 
     terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.

Then the camel men cursing and 
     grumbling
And running away, and wanting their
     liquor and women, 
And the night-fires going out, and the 
     lack of shelters, 
And the cities hostile and the towns 
     unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high
     prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all 
     night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, 
     saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a 
     temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of 
     vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill
     beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped in 
     away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with 
     vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for 
     pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no imformation, and so
     we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment
     too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say)
     satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I 
     remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This:  were we led all that way for
Birth or Death?  There was a Birth, 
     certainly, 
We had evidence and no doubt.  I had 
     seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; 
     this Birth was 
Hard and bitter agony for us, like 
     Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these
     Kingdoms, 
But no longer at ease here, in the old 
     dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their 
     gods.
I should be glad of another death.

Epiphany

2012-01-06T08:36:00.000-05:00

O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the Peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A people in darkness

2012-01-05T07:59:00.000-05:00

A people in darkness: today I see before me the millions of the imprisoned, the exiled, the deported, the tortured and the silenced everywhere in the world where people are pushed into this darkness. The important point is not the nations, which can be accused of these things. What is important is the worldwide brotherhood of men and women who are living in darkness. For it is on them that this divine light now shines.

Jurgen Moltmann: The Power of the Powerless

Christmas Day Sermon - "Good tidings of great joy!"

2012-01-02T15:32:00.000-05:00

Christmas Day Sermon

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

25 December 2011

Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, VA

Advent reminds us that much of our life is lived in expectation and preparation. We learn in school, we practice our musical instruments, we don our running gear and hit the roads, we read parenting books, we go to the gym, we make home improvements. Advent reminds us that much of our life is lived in expectation and preparation. But, Advent reminds us that we are awaiting Jesus bursting forth in our lives. We await Jesus, and hope for the “peace which passes all understanding,” in our own lives, and in the life of the world.

Our life is lived in expectation and preparation. As a child, my brother and I would wait with great expectation for my grandparents to arrive on Christmas Eve. Usually looking out the large window in our family room, seeing when their red car would come around the corner, carrying 20 varieties of cookies, wrapped presents, and all the makings for a Swedish Smorgasbord Christmas … Swedish meatballs, rice pudding (not my favorite). We would wait, until finally, they would arrive, and this would kick off the celebration of Christmas, with all its joy and magic.

Today, we recognize the arrival of God in our midst! God has become incarnate in the baby Jesus! We rejoice! We celebrate the glory that is God’s presence with us. Today, and always! We recognize that the gift has been given. We have received what we hoped for, and so much more. The gift of God’s presence is the great present for us. Jesus was born, but is born anew in us always.

The familiar words of Luke’s gospel ring true for us this year and this day, and so it came to pass…all went to their own towns to be registered…He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child….she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn… “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy which shall be to all people, for to you is born in the City of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”

The story is familiar, but we still need to hear it, year after year. On this day, we celebrate Jesus ‘s birth; the Gift of God’s presence in our lives.

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth, peace, good will to all!”

Much of our lives is lived in expectation and preparation. Much of our lives is lived in a half-awake existence, perhaps not even fully recognizing the gifts that are all around us. Much like Ebenezer Scrooge, we don’t always recognize the gift of God’s presence in our very lives, in our very ordinary lives. On this day, we celebrate the coming of God into our lives, we celebrate the unpacking of the presents from the overstuffed grandparents’ car, we celebrate the coming of dawn after the three ghosts of Christmas have visited. On this day, we celebrate the wondrous gift that has been given, once, and always. So, go to the tree and open the gift of Christmas present. It is for you, and for me, and for the world.

“I am bringing you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people!”

Rejoice!

Christmas Eve Sermon ~ "Let your light shine"

2012-01-02T12:30:00.001-05:00

Christmas Eve Sermon

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, VA

24 December 2011 – Isaiah 9:2-7

The darkness is gone, and the light shines. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. We remember the light that came into the world, in the person of Jesus Christ. But we do not merely remember, like some hazy photograph; some grainy 90mm film shown in the living room. No, this is not a memory hidden in the past. No, this is not a memory that will fade when our own memory of it fades. This is remembrance that happened in the past, but this is remembrance that continues today. The incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ happened those 2000 years ago, but the incarnation of God in our world is a happening that happened even in the beginning of the world and is a happening that happens today, and every day.

This is a day when we remember the light that came into the dark world, and when we also recognize the light that is enlightening the world always. If you merely close your eyes, you will see some darkness, but even now, in this place, in this glowing place of light and life, even our eyelids cannot shut out the light of these candles, lovingly arranged here for us. No, our eyelids cannot shut out the light of these mere wicks and wax. The light of these candles shines, even in the midst of the darkness of this night. And so, also, the light of Christ shines, and could not be extinguished by small-minded people of his time, or by the petty darkness of our world; and cannot be covered by the things of the world.

The light of Christ has shined with celestial brightness, filling the world with its light.

We began Advent praying to God, “give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light” as we prepared, once again, for God’s in-breaking into the world. We began Advent by asking God to help us prepare for Christ’s coming, and to help us move into that place where we could, with Mary, “ponder these things in her heart.”

We also prayed that God would give us the wisdom and vision of John the Baptist as he saw that something entirely new would enter the scene. The people went out there to the wilderness and thought they had reached their destination, but John was not the destination, but a mere signpost along the way. He pointed to one that was greater than himself, and he pointed to the true light that would come into the world, and who would baptize us with FIRE and the Holy Spirit.

And so, with our companions Mary, who pondered, and John the Baptist, who prepared, we have walked the dark pilgrim road of Advent, pondering and preparing. We have walked the way of Advent while we also have put on the armor of light. We have looked deep within to find the hope and joy that God has given us, and we have projected our own bit of light into the world so that others could see a bit of the light of Christ.

“This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine let it shine let it shine.”

The light shines, even amidst all those things of the world that aim to blow it out, or cover it, or wash it away. Our light shines because the light of Christ shines.

Our own light is much like one of these candles, but it is not a mere candle with a wick that can burn away, and it is not a mere bit of wax that can burn into oblivion. Our own light our own life, is given to us on this night. Our own lives are given to us, they are gifts, as the gifts that we might open tonight or tomorrow. Our own lives are gifts given to us by God, our own lives are energized the light of Christ, that has flowed into the world. Our own lives are empowered by the ever-flowing energy of God, the every present goodness, love, and mercy of God, ever flowing, ever empowering us, ever present with us.

On this dark night, let your light shine. On this dark night, let the light of Christ warm you, give you life, and light, and hope in the darkness. Let the light of Christ give you joy and peace and love, so that you can share that light with the world. Put on the armor of light, for God has cast away the works of darkness, and filled the world with celestial brightness. May we see it, may we be it, this night, and evermore!

Christmas Eve Sermon ~ "This strange story" ~ Lessons & Carols

2012-01-02T09:27:00.000-05:00

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Christmas Eve Sermon

Lessons and Carols Service

Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, VA

We have heard the glorious story of the reign of God. The nine lessons we have just heard are signposts along the journey of God’s people as they made their way in the world. From Genesis 3 and the temptation and Fall, through the promise to Abraham, through the glorious visions of Isaiah and the depictions of the Incarnation in the words written by Luke, and Matthew and John, we have heard an overview of this great story of God.

Here, in these words, so wonderfully read by members of our Emmanuel family, we hear the story of God. This story is not merely a bed-time story, and is not merely a story to be analyzed and dissected by scholars and priests. No, this story is meant to be the map that helps us to orient and situate our lives.

Like a compass and coordinates on a map, these stories are knit together and give us direction so that we might live and move within the reign of God. If these stories merely charm us, and if these carols merely entertain us with their melodies, we have missed the greater and deeper point of these stories, and song.

Allow yourself to hear these words anew this year, this Christmas. Can we allow these words to strike our ears with the gift of newness? If we do, we may hear the story of God and God’s people sound wholly other-wordly to us. And so they should. Karl Barth described this as, “entering the strange new world of the Bible,” and it can sound quite strange.

A man and a woman walking in a garden, being tempted by a serpent, and disobeying their creator. God promising to a very very old man who has no children that he will be given descendents like the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the earth, a prophet describing a child who will be born and who will redeem the world, visions of a great tree growing from a mere shoot, of wolves lying down with lambs, and a child will play nearby snakes.

This is strange stuff, no? And what of the strangest of all, of a child being born, in an occupied land, to an unwed mother among animals and straw, and then being visited by dirty shepherds and wild magicians from the East. And this child, somehow, in some way, is the child who will redeem the world! This child, this child will save the world!?

This is a strange story, this strange story of Jesus. It is a story that stands in sharp contrast to the other stories our world. This story is a story of God’s work triumphing over all.

This story is a story of impossible figures and plot turns. This story is a story of hope overcoming all hopelessness. This story stands up against the stories of alienation and separation and fear and hatred, which dominate the daily airwaves. This story of the long journey of God’s people, culminating in the birth of God as a child, Jesus, in the midst of the everyday and ordinary chaos of life, is a story that we desperately need to hear.

When we overly sanitize the story we miss out on its depth and gift. When we dive into the story and have ears to hear, we may hear that this is a story of God conquering over every human doubt. This is a story of God coming among us, and within us, and being born, so that we too, might be born anew.

Jesus said, I have come so that you might have life, and have it abundantly! Abundance! Gift! Jesus has come as the gift of God. God has given himself as a gift to us. In Jesus we encounter the most remarkable and fear-some (awe-some) gift. All we can do is round up our own petty gifts and lay them down, and hope that they might show God that we are thankful. We round up our gold, our frankincense, our myrrh, and we hope that these inadequate gifts might show God that we recognize the great gift that God has given us.

This story recounts the long journey of God’s people, from Genesis, through the Prophets, to the Gospels, and we sing praises to God for all we have received, and we pray that we too, might offer our own chapter to this great narrative. We hope that our own voices raised in song and praise might show forth our love for God, and our recognition that all God has done for us. We hope that our voices raised in song will cast out the fear that resides in us so that we might live the lives that God has given us. We hope that through the retelling of these strange stories and the raising of our voices we might truly live abundant lives knowing that our story is one of life, and love.

“All things came into being through him, and without him not one things came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”

Once in Royal David's City

2011-12-31T16:05:00.001-05:00

Lo how a rose E'er blooming

2011-12-31T00:16:00.002-05:00

Christmas collect

2011-12-25T23:54:00.003-05:00

Almighty God, you have given your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and to be born [this day] of a pure virgin: Grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit; through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with you and the same Spirit be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

I wonder as I wander - St. Martin in the Fields, Philadelphia

2011-12-25T13:29:00.000-05:00

The Christmas Story - wonderful video

2011-12-24T10:24:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas!

Disturb us, Lord

2011-12-12T07:09:00.001-05:00

Disturb us, Lord,
when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
when our dreams have come true
because we have dreamed too little,
when we arrived safely
because we sailed too close to the shore.

- Sir Francis Drake

"May the God of peace sanctify you entirely" - Sermon for Advent 3 - The Rev. Peter M. Carey

2011-12-11T12:27:00.001-05:00

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Sermon preached at Emmanuel Episcopal Church

Greenwood, VA

Advent 3, December 2011

“May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely.”

Are we ready to have our life stirred up? Are we ready for transformation? Are we ready to prepare the way of the Lord?

Sometimes we think that we are not really ready for Advent and this is why we rush to Christmas. However, Advent has great gifts for us.

We would be missing out if we rushed the ending. You see, Advent has these wonderfully challenging readings. Today, we begin with this most excellent Collect of the day, “stir up your power.” Are we really ready for God to stir things up? Are we feeling relatively secure with the way that we have things brewing and simmering on our own stovetops? Are we ready for the great master chef to enter into our world and start stirring up things in new ways, putting spices in our bland soups, heating up our lukewarm entrees, and throwing us into momentary spiritual turmoil? Probably not.

God enters into this world at points through the voice of the prophets, who definitely stir things up. Isaiah appears and is anointed by God, to bring “good news to the oppressed,” “release to the captives,” “comforting all who mourn” “repairing ruined cities.” This would stir things up, good news to the poorest of the poor – which might mean that those of us who are not the poorest of the poor may have to give up some of our material goods, some of our myth of security. Release to the captives would mean that those we consider to be guilty would need to be not only forgiven, but reenter society.

How does this stir it up stuff sound to you? Isaiah also shouts praises to God, and has become fully enmeshed in God’s presence, in God’s glory, in God’s hope. “My whole being will exult in my God,” and I will be wearing garments of salvation, and a robe of righteousness! What if the stirring up that God is doing will enable even us, in our somewhat placid and bland and lukewarm lives, to be spicier, to be heated up, and to be thrust into spiritual turmoil, but with the reward that “our whole beings will exult in God!” I want some of that cooking, how about you?

“Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy!”

“Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves.”

How wonderful is this? How crazy are these words, written so long ago, and inscribed in millions of Bibles around the world. Those who sowed with tears, who planted while in mourning, who bent low to prepare the ground and put seeds into the earth, watering the seeds with their salty tears…these same folks will receive the fruits of these seeds and sing with Joy! How could this be? How does this God turn salty tears and small mustard seeds into great great trees of life. How does this God turn our tears into Joy. How does this God transform our weeping into song?

It is not ours to know the how. But we do know the who. God does it. As Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “Rejoice always,” and how difficult this is, when we are sowing with tears, when we are going out weeping. But Paul, no stranger to punishment, jail, and loneliness, claims “rejoice always”…”pray without ceasing” “give thanks”…”hold fast to what is good.” And then he recognizes what might happen when God stirs things up. He recognizes what happens to us when God enters into this world; even amidst our tears and weeping, even admidst our disappointment and loneliness.

Like Isaiah, Paul believes that the entirety of our selves will become filled with God’s love. Our entire selves, our minds, our souls, our bodies, our brains, our fingernails, our aching backs, our thinning hair, our weakening eyesight, all of it will be filled with God’s Spirit. Paul prays, “May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely.” This is the kind of stirring up that I can handle, even if the pots on my stove are going to be disturbed. Perhaps I need some disturbing. Perhaps I need some spice in the bland soup. Perhaps I need my entrees warmed up. Perhaps I need a whole new diet. God will do it. This is what “stir it up” Sunday is all about. “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.”

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated unto you; and then use us, we pray you, as you will, and always to your glory and the welfare of your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Remembering Merton ~ December 10, 1968

2011-12-10T16:42:00.000-05:00

Thomas Merton's work and life became known to me at an important point in my own journey of faith. I have much to say about him and love so much of his work. I will blog more about him soon, but right now I am remembering this wonderful person who helped me to see some hidden richness in the tradition that is Christianity. Remembering him today with love and fondness.

~ The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Thomas Merton - Dec 10 - "we are not converted only once"

2011-12-10T14:42:00.000-05:00

"We are not converted only once in our lives but many times.
And it is this endless series of upheavals, large and small,
which leads to our transformation in Christ." - Thomas Merton

Whatever will be, will be

2011-12-10T09:22:00.001-05:00

Caught by our own thoughts,
we worry about everything.
But once we get drunk on that Love
Whatever will be, will be.
Rumi ♥

Advent – Putting on the armor of light

2011-12-01T06:31:00.001-05:00

With the arrival of December 1^st, we are now into the first week of Advent. It is a time of busy-ness all around us. Families gathering, shopping to do, decorating, an increase in social obligations, work parties, community parties, school parties – is this true for you as well? It is also a time of increasing darkness as we move toward the shortest days of the year just before Christmas breaks in with all of its light and life.

With all this busy-ness, and all of this activity, we may feel bombarded with “to do” lists, and also with the sense that there is a disconnect between the spirituality of Advent and the reality of the “holiday season.”

A helpful balm in the midst of this busy time is our Collect for the first Sunday of Advent. Some of you might have missed hearing the Collect if you were away for the Sunday just after Thanksgiving, but it is perhaps my favorite Collect of the entire church year:

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

We pray that in this time of Advent that we would “cast away the works of darkness,” that, even in this busy time, with all the temptations to be “of the world,” we know that God is giving us grace. In this time, we know that God is empowering us to find time to reflect, to ponder as Mary did, to seek to go deep, and also to remember God in the midst of the blitz of the holiday shopping season.

We pray that we would put on “the armor of light,” which is a fascinating image, one in which we use our own deep hope and joy to create a physical protection around ourselves. However, this protection is not merely defensive, rather, like light itself, it fills the world with the light of Christ. If you have read Harry Potter, this is something like (in my thinking) the notion of a patronus, which is a figure of light and life which emerges from our own positive thoughts of joy and hope. This patronus or armor of light casts away the works of darkness, and all the things of this world which can steal away our hope and joy and love.

And so, I pray that even in the midst of the increasing darkness of these days, we all might find new ways to “put on an armor of light,” or (if you like) to push out our own patronuses into the world, projecting light, and hope and joy and peace and love into a world that is in such desperate need of them. As we walk the ways of Advent, we prepare for the coming of the one true light, and we do not walk alone, for our armor is not merely protection for us, but is projected outward, and together we will fill even the darkest places with the light that God has provided.

Peter+

Rekindle the light

2011-11-30T08:10:00.002-05:00

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by
a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to
think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted
the flame within us." ~ Albert Schweitzer

Gratefulness

2011-11-23T09:03:00.000-05:00

“It is gratefulness which makes the soul great.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel

God entices us through love

2011-11-16T06:32:00.003-05:00

God always entices us through love.

"Most of us were taught that God would love us if and when we change. In fact, God loves you so that you can change. What empowers change, what makes you desirous of change is the experience of love. It is that inherent experience of love that becomes the engine of change. If the mystics say that one way, they say it a thousand ways. But because most of our common religion has not been at the mystical level, we’ve been given an inferior message—that God loves me when I change (moralism). What that does is put it back on you. You’re back to “navel-gazing,” and you never succeed at that level. You are never holy enough, pure enough, refined enough, or loving enough. Whereas, when you fall into God’s mercy, when you fall into God’s great generosity, you find, seemingly from nowhere, this capacity to change. No one is more surprised than you are. You know it is a gift."

~Richard Rohr

Do churches want transformation?

2011-11-14T08:19:00.000-05:00

"But recalling that Jesus himself was unable to transform the Temple establishment of his day, and remembering that Paul was run out of a good many more synagogues than he was welcome in, I'm not sure that any amount of training can equip seminarians for transformation in churches that are quite happy with how they are—or were, thank you very
much."

~Brian McLaren

It's a great gift, to have a sense of the presence and the love of a personal God in your life. ~ Bishop Budde

2011-11-12T22:36:00.000-05:00

‎"What I appreciate most about the tradition that is mine is the person of Jesus, the example of his life, the power of his teaching and the mystical presence of the risen Christ that is the spiritual foundation of Christianity. It's a great gift, to have a sense of the presence and the love of a personal God in your life."
~ Bishop Budde of the Diocese of Washington

On mission - Post 2: Elizabeth Drescher

2011-11-12T21:34:00.000-05:00

While I am working through thoughts on Mission, I thought Elizabeth Drescher's piece at Episcopal Cafe provided good food for thought, as well as the 20+ comments posted there in response.

Do we struggle with "singing a new song" in the church? How so? When I think of Jesus, I don't think of someone who was merely thinking about playing the "old standards"...he seemed to be pushing us beyond the same old same old. However, we are often seeking the security of nostalgia for its own sake. Is this what God is calling us to? Is this what the Holy Spirit is empowering us to be?

The Church's Mission, Let's be honest

by Elizabeth Drescher posted at Episcopal Cafe

You know, I sometimes wonder whether the Israelites heard the call of the psalm we read today as I sometimes do: "Sing to the Lord a new song...? Really?"

I mean, let's be honest, even in the most literal sense, we struggle with this idea, resisting in our churches music that might nudge us even ever so slightly out of the nineteenth century. Oh, I'm not talking here about going all "U2-charist," or bringing in hip hop hymns that'll get the young folks dancing before the Lord. After all, we know that the few thriving emergent communities in our church are more likely to sing songs from the Middle Ages--a little Gregorian Chant, a remix of Hildegard of Bingen, or, to modernize just a smidge, some shape note tunes--than they are to be jamming to the spiritual stylings of Gospel Ganstaz. But they are singing those old songs in a new way--inhabiting them bodily, infusing them with a spirit that is often missing from our churches, truly "lifting every voice" in glorious praise.

Outside of these communities--the Crossing at St. Paul's Cathedral in Boston, Open Cathedral at St. Mark's in Seattle, Thad's in Los Angeles, Transmission in New York--"singing a new song" has, in the least nuanced, least metaphorical way, been something of a challenge for us.

And that makes me worry about how far along God's path we may be able to travel these days as we seek to realize the peaceable kingdom Isaiah prophesied. If we can't get the theme song down, what chance do we have to be so much as bit players in the whole new cosmic drama--the heartwarming story of true love realized across the earth that, as Paul reminds us, Jesus narrated with his life, death, and resurrection?

Of course, Paul points in his letter to the Ephesians to what throws us off tune in our efforts to sing a new, harmonious song, to live as one diverse body: barriers and the hostilities they cause among us. What do these barriers look like in our church in particular? If you've just lept in your mind to things like women's ordination or diverse opinions on human sexuality, I'm going to suggest that you guess again . . .

Read the rest HERE

Life

2011-11-12T20:41:00.001-05:00

"Life must be understood backwards. But it must be lived forward." -Soren Kierkegaard

My thoughts are not your thoughts

2011-11-11T08:03:00.002-05:00

Canticle 10 The Second Song of Isaiah
Quaerite Dominum Isaiah 55:6-11

Seek the Lord while he wills to be found; *
call upon him when he draws near.

Let the wicked forsake their ways *
and the evil ones their thoughts;

And let them turn to the Lord, and he will have compassion, *
and to our God, for he will richly pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, *
nor your ways my ways, says the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, *
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as rain and snow fall from the heavens *
and return not again, but water the earth,

Bringing forth life and giving growth, *
seed for sowing and bread for eating,

So is my word that goes forth from my mouth; *
it will not return to me empty;

But it will accomplish that which I have purposed, *
and prosper in that for which I sent it.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Middlebury (VT) at 250 years!

2011-11-10T14:46:00.001-05:00

A wonderful video of my hometown...

Wait patiently

2011-11-10T07:55:00.002-05:00

O tarry and await the LORD'S pleasure;
be strong, and he shall comfort your heart; *
wait patiently for the LORD.
~Psalm 27:18

Benedict on hospitality

2011-11-09T12:53:00.000-05:00

Benedict’s rule: ‘Let all guests who come be received as Christ.’

What is Mission? - post #1

2011-11-08T07:33:00.002-05:00

We hear the word "mission" thrown around a lot. What does it mean? What is its theoretical or theological definition? What is its "working definition"?

This first post is consciously not taken from the Bible. (We'll get there.) In part, this is because I think that the word "mission" has been used and overused by corporations, schools, organizations and teams so that the notion of having a mission tied to the higher purposes of God is one that is more quaint, and more theoretical / theological and perhaps not the "working definition" these days at all. What are the working definitions of "mission" or "mission statement"... are we clear about what our mission is as a believer in Jesus Christ, is the church clear about her mission? What are the competing missions? How do vision and mission interact?

Good questions to begin to ponder, no?

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Here is what Wikipedia says about mission statements:

"Mission statement

A mission statement is a statement of the purpose of a company or organization. The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a path, and guide decision-making. It provides "the framework or context within which the company's strategies are formulated."[1] Historically it is associated with Christian religious groups; indeed, for many years, a missionary was assumed to be a person on a specifically religious mission. The word "mission" dates from 1598, originally of Jesuits sending ("missio", Latin for "act of sending") members abroad.[2]

The vision and the mission statements are often confused with one another, and some organizations even use them interchangeably. In simple terms, the mission is the organization's reason for existence, and vision is what it wants to be."

Be the blessed! ~ All Saints Day Sermon ~ 6 November 2011 ~ The Rev. Peter M. Carey

2011-11-07T10:16:00.000-05:00

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

6 November 2011

All Saints Day Sermon

Emmanuel Episcopal Church

Greenwood, Virginia

We are one fellowship, we are one body, we are the great multitude, we are blessed, we are the children of God.

The readings today are in the present tense. They describe what is. They describe the deep and abiding mystery and mystical vision of God ever breaking into this very world. God is with us, and God abides with us, and God is present now, in this present time. Christ has lived, and was made known in the person of Jesus in Nazareth, Galilee, and Capernaum, but Christ is alive, alive now among us, within us, enlivening us and empowering us.

It can be easy to overly intellectualize and criticize the words of scripture, and get some emotional distance from them. “Well” we say in our authoritarian voice, the writer of the Psalms was talking about a particular moment during David’s reign. Or, we note that the writer of 1 John was, “speaking metaphorically about the notion of us being the children of God, when surely he was merely offering pastoral care and a fanciful vision of hope to a restless community.” We can fall into the trap of talking so much about God that we forget that God is alive, that God is amidst us God is within us and we are his holy people, a royal priesthood. We are the saints in light.

The readings today are in the present tense in the sense that while they may be talking about times past, or times future, they are also talking about the time in the present. The present moment is here for us, it is the only moment that we truly have. While we hope for joy in the future, lest not our hope for the future cloud the joy amidst us in this moment – this holy moment.

If you are anything like me, you probably find yourself spending a good deal of time in the past – past glory, past hurts, past relationships, revisiting the moments of the past and considering their goodness, and the ways that they were lacking. You may also find yourself thinking about the future, planning, hoping, considering the stresses that may impact us in the future. Do you do this? Does this strike a chord? Our Bible also does this, of course. We look to the past, to the story of creation, to the stories of figures such as David, and Ruth, and Esther, and Abraham, and all the rest. Also, our Bible gives us visions of a future – perhaps the visions of the Psalms, or perhaps also the letters of John and also Revelation offer up visions of a future that we can barely imagine.

However, the Bible also breaks open the present, and while the past and the future are important – knowing where we have been and where we are going are key – however, if we don’t know where we are, we are lost. We must remember that we encounter God in the present moment. Think of Moses, walking through the wilderness, what if he didn’t turn aside in the present moment to see the burning bush, what if he was so wrapped up in the pain of the past? What if he was so longing for the future that he forgot to be observant about God’s presence in the present? Well, Moses had to be present for God’s presence to be seen.

Are you ready to see God in the present? Are we ready to see that we are truly blessed? Are we ready to truly encounter God in this tremendous moment? Are we ready to encounter the mystical and reality of God in our lives?

The psalmist reminds us, “bless the Lord at all times, glory in the Lord, be radiant!” BE RADIANT! BE RADIANT. Are we radiant, or are we borrowing trouble from the future.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good, happy are those who trust in him.” Taste and see! TASTE AND SEE. The psalmist does not say, “fast today so that you might lose a few pounds and God may reveal himself to you tomorrow.” No. “Taste and see!” Are you tasting it, are you seeing it? Perhaps we need to cleanse our spiritual taste buds and clear off our lenses.

Of course, we have been promised much by God, but we also have been made children of God. Christ has thrown open the doors. Where the gates were closed, locked, with a passcode for solely a few, Christ has busted down the doors to the House of God. We have been made children of God, we are ALREADY children of God. “We are God’s children now” says the letter of 1 John. “WE ARE GOD’s CHILDREN NOW.” You see, we don’t need to wait, we don’t need to postpone joy. Of course, more has been promised to us, “What we will be has not been revealed, …[but] we will be like him!”

You see, the blessings have already begun, and are present now. Jesus knew this when he enacted what he commanded. He became the gift that he spoke abouty. He became the Good News that he proclaimed. When Jesus said “Blessed are….” He was not offering a word of hope. When Jesus said, “Blessed are…” he was not offering mere reassurance. Nope, he was creating blessing through his words. Remember when God created all that is, and spoke the words “let there be light” and there was light. Jesus, too, creates through his words. And the blessing that Jesus offers is the blessing that creates a holy people, a communion of saints, the children of God, empowered to breathe life and hope and peace into even this present moment. A people who will not be living merely in the past, and a people that will not be borrowing trouble from the future. In Christ’s blessing, a holy people is created who are able to live and breathe and offer hope in this present moment – and we are they.

We are the children of God. We are the blessed. We are to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” We are the ones who are “happy because we trust in him.”

And so, we are the saints of God, “patient and brave and true,” we are the ones who can and do make a difference in this world. We are the ones who are blessed, who no longer need to worry, who no longer need to fear anything, because we fear only God (we are in awe of God), and God has blessed us, and promised us mercy and love.

We have been given “ineffable joys.” What does this mean? I have no idea, but it must be grand. It must be wonderful. We have been blessed with “ineffable joys” in our lives, do we have eyes to see. Can we take a moment and see and “ineffable joys” granted to us?

God is with us, and God abides with us, and God is present now, in this present time. Christ has lived, and was made known in the person of Jesus in Nazareth, Galilee, and Capernaum, but Christ is alive, alive now among us, within us, enlivening us and empowering us.

So, Be Radiant! Be the Blessed!

Aquinas on pride

2011-11-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas said of Pride "inordinate self-love is the cause of every sin (1,77) ... the root of pride is found to consist in man not being, in some way, subject to God and His rule."

Sin of pride...

2011-11-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

Wikipedia entry...

"Pride

Main article: Pride

Building the Tower of Babel was, for Dante, an example of pride. Painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder

In almost every list pride (Latin, superbia), or hubris, is considered the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins, and the source of the others. It is identified as a desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self (especially holding self out of proper position toward God). Dante's definition was "love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbour." In Jacob Bidermann's medieval miracle play, Cenodoxus, pride is the deadliest of all the sins and leads directly to the damnation of the titulary famed Parisian doctor. In perhaps the best-known example, the story ofLucifer, pride (his desire to compete with God) was what caused his fall from Heaven, and his resultant transformation into Satan. In Dante's Divine Comedy, the penitents were forced to walk with stone slabs bearing down on their backs to induce feelings of humility."

One communion and fellowship

2011-11-06T09:00:00.001-05:00

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

For too long the Church has been obsessed with its own internal workings

2011-11-04T23:55:00.001-04:00

From The Episcopal Cafe:

Giles Frasier writes in the Church Times about his experience when Occupy London camped out at the St. Paul's Cathedral.

THE lectionary can be a cruel mistress. The evensong readings set for what was my last sermon at St Paul’s gave me Luke 6: “Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. . . But woe unto you that are rich! For ye have received your consolation.”

The whole point of having a lectionary is that it obliges the preacher not to avoid the hard bits of the Bible. Were the readings up to me, I would have chosen something much safer. But that is the whole point of having a lectionary: it stops you retreating into safety. There are some things that just must stay on the agenda, however uncomfortable.

And uncomfortable it is. St Paul’s sits on a fault-line between the City of London — the boiler room of global capitalism — and texts such as this. It is no wonder that the presence of the protest camp has given the cathedral a great deal to think about. Issues of financial justice are at the heart of the scriptures, and, like the lectionary, there is no way of avoiding it.
None of this is to say that the Church must be in league with any particular secular ideology. We are not the Labour Party at prayer, just as we are not the Tory Party at prayer. I have no truck with those who want to bring down capitalism. Markets create jobs and generate wealth.
. . .
My own views aside, one of the things that is clear is that the present, very difficult situation at St Paul’s is in fact a historic opportunity for the Church to reset its relationship with the marketplace (something the Roman Catholic Church is much better at than we have been).

For too long the Church has been obsessed with its own internal workings and with silly arguments about sex. Now is the time for a new debate and a new emphasis. For if we are not fully involved with complex discussions about the relationship between financial justice and the way our financial institutions work, then we might as well give up on being a proper Church and admit that we are the spiritual arm of the heritage industry.

Was Jesus leading a generational movement?

2011-11-02T23:03:00.000-04:00

What say you church geeks? History geeks?

I posted this on Facebook, and realize I would love to hear from others...

how much was Jesus' life and work really a conflict between generations? Pharisees...? Caiaphus? Herod? (or, do I have this really all wrong-that generations are really a modern, or post-modern 'invention' and had no reality in 1st century Palestine)...what say you church geeks...? what say you history geeks?

What are the passages that point to generational conflict? What are the passages that point to generational peace, or status quo? How might a notion of Jesus as a leader of a generational movement impact the way that we understand generational conflict today?

Please comment...!

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

All Souls Day

2011-11-02T08:00:00.001-04:00

Today is All Souls Day!

Several years ago I was blessed to spend the day at Westminster Abbey on November 2nd...and I wrote about it below...

May you have a blessed All Souls Day,

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

photo credit

Several years ago while in college, I was studying in Europe and made a trip up to England to visit a friend and to see some of the sights there. I was excited that my friend was staying in Kent, and I would be able to go to Canterbury Cathedral to attend church and poke around in the town. But, before going to Kent, I was in London in early November, visiting museums and churches, and doing the tourist thing. On November 2nd, I made my way over to Westminster Abbey, where I was to meet up with one of the canons of the Abbey. A mutual friend made the connection for me, and I was poking around the Abbey on a terribly rainy and cold day. Not being totally keyed into the liturgical calendar, I was able to learn a bit about All Souls Day while in Westminster Abbey. Since it was such a cold and rainy day, and since there are endless things to see and to visit, I stayed there much of the day. Since All Souls Day is also known as the Feast of the Faithful Departed when many Christians remember all those who have died in the last year, it became a rich and deep place to observe the holiday. In addition, just the day before, one of the elderly canons (priests in a leadership role) at the Abbey had died. So, along with the rainy day, the soulful Abbey (full of tombs!), and the occasion of the death of the canon it really was a wonderful place to learn about All Souls Day, and about the depth of our Anglican Tradition - not merely by reading about it or talking about it, but by doing it. I entered Westminster Abbey a tourist, and left a pilgrim.

I pray that we all take time today to reflect upon All Souls Day and pray for all those who have died, and pray for us, that we might live in a way that is full, abundant, and holy.

Blessings on All Souls Day,

~The Rev. Peter M.Carey

photo credit

Rowan Williams on All Saints

2011-11-01T21:13:00.003-04:00

In its original Latin the Apostles' Creed announces belief in the communio sanctorum; and this could mean one of two things - or maybe both. It could be 'the sharing between holy people' or it could mean 'the sharing of holy things'. Now when the New Testament, especially St Paul, talks about 'holy people', it doesn't mean quite what we might mean by 'saint', it isn't offering a sort of verdict on a lot of spectacularly good lives. Christian people are 'holy' simply because they have been adopted by God into relationship, into that family relationship expressed in saying 'Our Father'. So the 'sharing between holy people' isn't some kind of club for the spiritually gifted; it's simply the relationship that holds together those who recognize and express their adoption by God. And so this sharing becomes tangible and visible when Christians are together just breathing the air of Christ, making real in words and actions who they are in relation to Jesus. The 'communion' that is meant here is what becomes visible when Christians are simply saying who they are.

And what does this involve? The Church is the community of those who have been 'immersed' in Jesus' life, overwhelmed by it. Those who are baptized have disappeared under the surface of Christ's love and reappeared as different people. The waters close over their heads, and then, like the old world rising out of watery chaos in the first chapter of the Bible, out comes a new world. So when the Church baptizes people, it says what it is and what sort of life its people live. Baptism is an event in which the 'sharing between holy people' comes to light and we see what the Church really is, a community in which people are constantly being brought into new life by being given a new relationship with God and each other.

It is also the community of those who are invited to eat with Jesus. Just as, in his earthly life, Jesus expressed his promise to create a new people of God by sharing meals with unlikely people, just as, after the resurrection, he shares food with his disciples as he re-calls them to their task, so it is with the whole Church. We are in the Church because we have been invited, not because we have earned our place. And so when the Church gathers to eat and drink with Jesus in Holy Communion, the Church once again says who and what it is. In baptism and Holy Communion, the nature of the Church is laid bare for us. What is the Church? It is simply those who have been immersed in, soaked in the life of Jesus, and who have been invited to eat with him and pray to the Father with him.

~ Rowan Williams, Tokens of Trust (2007)

hat tip to Creedal Christian

All Saints Day

2011-11-01T12:41:00.000-04:00

An early Advent?

2011-11-01T11:00:00.000-04:00

Emmanuel Way Newsletter Article

November 2011

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

An early Advent?

With the Christmas decorations already in many stores and the commercial aspects of the holiday season getting into full swing even before Thanksgiving occurs, I wonder what happens to Advent in the mix of all this commercial chaos? And so, here in the month of November, I am going to write a bit about Advent.

My proposal is that we should really begin to focus on Advent before the “official” time that Advent begins so that we might gain some of the spiritual benefits of this rich and deep season before we are consumed by the commercialization of the season. I have read that in medieval times, Advent was actually practiced for 7 weeks or more, instead of the four weeks that we now have for the season, so this effort is not without precedent.

Advent is a time of expectation, and a time of going deep within one’s self as we each prepare a place for God in our hearts and in our lives. Just as we might imagine Mary and Joseph preparing a place for a baby in their own busy and chaotic lives, we also might find ways to prepare a place for Christ in our lives today. Of course, God is with us, and Christ abides with us and in us at all times. However, doing some clearing away some of the spiritual clutter of our lives may, in fact, provide room for Christ to enter in anew this year.

What are some tangible things that we can do? One is to take a look around your house and see if there are a few areas where you can open up space. Perhaps there is a pile of books next to your comfy chair which are nice to have there, but books that you haven’t yet read, and books that don’t need to be there. Perhaps putting the books away in order to leave open some space can be an outward and visible sign of what we are also striving to do in our hearts.

What about if you have children and there is a plethora of toys scattered in their rooms, or in a playroom. Perhaps in this time we could choose to put away some of the toys, to put them in a box for a time, in the attic or basement, so that some room is made clear. Perhaps we could even have a conversation with our kids about “preparing a place” for Jesus just as the animals in the stable might have done.

And what about our daily calendar, what about our many appointments and to do lists, what about our time that we spend online which is mere filler time, what about the time that we turn on the television and have it on in the background, just filling up the airwaves of our homes? Could we move a few things off of our calendars? Could we put off one or two items until January? Could we turn off the constant banter on the radio or television?

Jesus said repeatedly, let those with eyes see, let those with ears, hear. Sometimes, I think that the reason some of us don’t recognize God’s presence, and God’s voice in our lives is that we pollute our vision and our hearing with a cacophony of sights and sounds.

How might you “prepare a home” for Christ in our midst? How might you, like Mary, “ponder these things” in your heart? I encourage you, even in this (somewhat) early month of November to begin to “practice Advent” in your lives. Practicing Advent living may offer up deep spiritual benefits and help us to recognize Christ in this season of expectation and preparation.

(Early) Advent Blessings!

Peter+

Blessed are the cheesemakers (and all the Saints!)

2011-11-01T06:58:00.001-04:00

Today is All Saints Day. November 1st, and November 2nd is known as All Souls' Day. Most often, these two days are merged together and observed on the first Sunday after All Saints. So, next Sunday, we'll be celebrating All Saints and the gospel reading will be from the Sermon on the Mount, (Matthew 5: 1-12) - the "Blessed are the ______" reading that is quoted so often.

Of course, it is also a good time to watch Life of Brian, or at least the "Sermon on the Mount" clip from it!

Humor is good medicine,

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Blessed are the cheesemakers (and all the Saints!)

2011-11-01T06:58:00.000-04:00

A four-fold Franciscan blessing

2011-10-31T20:53:00.000-04:00

I use an adaptation of this blessing often at the end of the Holy Eucharist, but was so glad to finally find the original (I am assuming it is the original) version and also a citation for the writer of it!

I love this one, and have it pasted in the back of my Book of Common Prayer...

by Sr. Ruth Fox, OSB (1985)

May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really CAN make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God's grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.

And the blessing of God the Supreme Majesty and our Creator,
Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word who is our brother and Saviour,
and the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Guide,
be with you and remain with you, this day and forevermore.

AMEN

Mary Poppins' "bird woman" evicted from St. Paul's Cathedral?

2011-10-31T08:14:00.001-04:00

Would St. Paul's Cathedral get rid of the "bird woman" from the "steps of St. Paul's" from Mary Poppins...

What a bunch of scrooges; or worse!

"Halloween is Christian, wonderfully so!" ~Bishop Shannon Johnston

2011-10-28T09:17:00.000-04:00

The bishop of Virginia, the Rt. Rev. Shannon Johnston, wrote a great article back in 2005 about his understanding of, and his support of, Halloween. I am posting the entire article here as it is a wonderful argument for why Christians can support Halloween in good conscience. So dress up, have a great day, and be sure to also go to church next Sunday, November 6 when we celebrate All Saints Day!

~ The Rev. Peter M. Carey

YES! HALLOWEEN IS CHRISTIAN––WONDERFULLY SO!
The Rt. Rev. Shannon Johnston (written before he was consecrated bishop and posted on October 26, 2005)

When I was a child, I loved Halloween. All of my family participated enthusiastically, decorating our house with witches, devils, black cats, and ghosts. It was innocent fun, filled with imagination and creativity. Looking back, what made Halloween so great for this child was its contrast of silliness and fright, the supernatural and the known, the permitted and the forbidden, the secretive and the public. Halloween was unique; no other occasion was anything like it.

As an adult––and as a priest––I still love Halloween. And I do mean HALLOWEEN, not a “Fall Festival” or the like. Every year, I carve two pumpkins–one playfully smiling and the other “very scary.” I love seeing the children’s costumes and making a big fuss over them. How sad now that Halloween is being spoiled and even taken away from us by the absolutely outrageous ideas that it is “satanic,” pagan, or of the occult. Such notions are poorly informed, terribly misguided, and absolutely untrue. There are many materials circulating these days, all pretending some sort of scholarly knowledge and/or religious authority, that strive to show that Halloween is “really” celebrating the powers of darkness. In response, I must be absolutely clear: pretenses of authority notwithstanding, these materials are at great odds with centuries of commonly accepted theology, not to mention scholarship with proven accreditation. The so-called “exposure” of Halloween is nothing more than a skewed, self-serving agenda from various churches that make up only a tiny minority of Christianity, indeed a minority within Protestantism.

Of course I am aware that satanists, Wiccans, and other occult groups are indeed active on October 31. It is also true that some pseudo-spiritualists and some plain ole’ nut-cases use Halloween as an excuse to act out. NONE OF THIS CHANGES WHAT HALLOWEEN ACTUALLY IS OR WHAT IT MEANS IN THE CHURCH’S LIFE AND WITNESS. Much of the occult association with the day arose long after the Church’s observances began in the mid 300's. Our answer to those Christians who bristle at the celebration of Halloween is that we will not allow occultists to steal it away from God’s Church. Moreover, several Christian observances have pre-Christian ancestry or pagan parallels (the date of Christmas, for example). Whatever the case, the fact is that the Christian truths proclaimed on such days are not affected.

A big part of the problem here comes from the people who do not understand the Liturgical Year because their churches do not follow it. It’s hard to keep a clear perspective on something so rooted in history and tradition if you belong to a church that has no such roots, or to one that rejects as irrelevant or “suspect” the ancient practices from the earliest Christian centuries.

The bottom line is Halloween’s relationship to All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1), one of the Church’s seven “Principal Feasts.” The celebration of any Principal Feast may begin on the evening before––thus, Christmas Eve, Twelfth Night (before Epiphany), Easter Eve (the Great Vigil), etc. Halloween is simply the eve of All Saints’ Day, which is also a baptismal feast. The great truth behind Halloween’s revels is that which we declare at every baptism: “YOU ARE SEALED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT IN BAPTISM AND ARE MARKED AS CHRIST’S OWN FOREVER.”

The most important thing to remember is this: Halloween is the time when Christians proclaim and celebrate the fact that Satan and the occult have no power over us and cannot disrupt our relationship with our Lord and Redeemer, as long as we live faithfully to Christ. We show this by making fun of such pretenders, lampooning them in their face. This is why our costumes and decorations certainly should be witches, devils, and ghosts. In the victory of Christ, Christians are privileged to do this and we must not be timid about it!
Ours is not a fearful faith, cowering from the prospect of falling unawares into Satan’s grasp. In God’s grace and your faithfulness, you ARE Christ’s own forever. Nothing supersedes that fact. Halloween is therefore one of the boldest Christian witnesses, precisely because of its highly public, graphic, and lampooning nature. Personally, I suspect that those who cannot embrace this are living a fear-driven and even insecure faith. If so, they have bigger problems than the highjinks of Halloween.
In Christ,
Shannon

Gandhi's seven sins

2011-10-27T05:08:00.001-04:00

So, put up against Gandhi's report card...how are we doing?

Politics without principle,

pleasure without conscience,

wealth without work,

knowledge without character

business without morality,

science without humanity,

worship without sacrifice.

Lord, it is night

2011-10-26T23:56:00.000-04:00

Lord it is night.

The night is for stillness.

Let us be still in the presence of God.

It is night after a long day.

What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done.

Let it be.

The night is dark

Let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives rest in you.

The night is quiet.

Let the quietness of your peace enfold us, all dear to us, and all who have no peace.

The night heralds the dawn.

Let us look expectantly to a new day, new joys, new possibilities.

In your name we pray..

Amen

Moustache growing season

2011-10-25T23:39:00.000-04:00

From LiveStrong blog...I am embarking on this project, to grow a moustache to raise money for the Headstrong foundation...pictures to be posted, soon.

It’s (Almost) Moustache Growing Season!

by Chris Brewer (LIVESTRONG Staff)

I can still recall the day a few years ago our CEO, 3-time cancer survivor Doug Ulman, returned from Australia and told me, “Hey, I’d like you to see about us getting involved with this organization called Movember.” OK, I said, tell me about them. He went on to say they were this enthusiastic group of guys who wanted to bring back the moustache (a Mo in Aussie slang) in November, hence:Movember. And in the process they’d spread the word about men’s health, raise some funds, have a lot of fun and a then throw big party afterwards. Sounds good, I said – but just how big is it, we’re talking growing moustaches, after all?
Well, in 2003 it was really more of a fun, party thing with just 30 guys participating. In 2004 450 “Mo Bros” joined up and they raised $54,000 for the Australian Prostate Cancer Foundation, at that time the largest single donation that organization had ever received. And then things got really interesting. To date, more than 1.1 Million Mo Bros and Mo Sistas have participated with formal campaigns in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, the UK, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, South Africa and Ireland, raising over $147 million dollars for the fight against cancer! An amazing accomplishment in the fight against cancer.
And that brings us to 2011 and about a week before the campaign begins. The beauty of Movember – aside from the styling moustache guys can grow and women support – is that participation is key, and fundraising something more organic. Look at the goals they’ve got and you’ll see why:
Awareness and educationThrough our annual campaign and funded programs we will significantly increase the understanding of the health risk that men face and encourage men to act on that knowledge.
SurvivorshipWe will fund survivorship initiatives that provide information and support for men and their families affected by prostate and other male cancers that helps them make informed decisions and improves their quality of life.
Prostate cancer researchWe will fund catalytic research and clinical trials infrastructure that leads to significantly improved diagnostic and prognostic tests and treatments to reduce the burden of prostate cancer.
Influencing change in men’s healthWe will fund research that helps to inform health policy and knowledge translation that accelerates improved health outcomes for men.
And so this basic idea for a fun 30 days in Movember has blossomed into a global men’s health campaign. We here at LIVESTRONG are proud partners with our Mo Bros and Sistas and hope that you’ll join in as well. Sign up atMovember.com, form a team, hold an event, but most importantly talk about the issues and realities surrounding men’s health to those you know and love – you never know whose life you might change in the process.

The Monastery, from 2005 on the BBC

2011-10-25T21:08:00.001-04:00

Quite good...

We are meant to shine

2011-10-24T16:30:00.006-04:00

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

~Marianne Williamson

Beautiful evening with our church youth group!

2011-10-23T20:54:00.000-04:00

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23 October 2011 ~ Sermon ~ "prophets of a future not our own"

2011-10-23T13:12:00.002-04:00

The Rev. Peter M. Carey
Sermon at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, Virginia
23 October 2011

Comings and goings. Beginnings and Endings. Birth and death. Gains and losses.

Our lives are full of them. Just when we think things are moving quite well, that the status quo is a pretty good thing, we encounter a bump in the road, a twist of fate, a rough patch. Just when we think we have a handle on something, a new challenge emerges. Remember when you were young, and you moved your way through elementary school, and you reached the top grade in your school? You were the big dogs. You were the ones that others had to look up to? And then, you moved on to Junior High, or Middle School, and all of a sudden, you were at the bottom again. And then this pattern happened over and over. You were the top in the band, and then you were moved up to High School Band. You were the captain of your team, and then you were moved to Varsity. You were All-State, and then you were “riding the pine” at college.

It continues in our lives, we get comfortable, we get to thinking that we have a handle on things, and then the handles change, and we have trouble holding on. Recently I was reminded by a wise mentor that we are often moved by God into places and spaces that are over our heads. We like to think that we move from one place to another while relying on our strengths and gifts, and that our acquisition of “skill sets” will lead us to new challenges that we are prepared for.

Alas, we are most often NOT prepared for what we are about to be confronted with. Who is really prepared for parenting? Who is really prepared for a new job? Who is really prepared for that new stage in our lives? Who is really prepared to say goodbye?

We gain experience, and we gain skills, but most often we are pushed beyond our “comfort zones,” and we are put into positions in which we are over our heads. So, where to turn? What might these situations be teaching us? Where do we turn in these situations?

If you think you might have it bad, just think about the Israelites. They had labored through 40 years in the wilderness under the strong and wise leadership of Moses. Moses, who had seen God “face to face” back when he was walking along and a burning bush started talking to him. Moses had seen God “face to face” and was the only person ever to see God in this way, and live. Not only that, Moses had ascended the Mount, to return with the Law of God in the form of the 10 commandments. Moses had actually spent time talking with God, and was most definitely a “man of God” and, even, perhaps a “friend of God,” or at least about as close as a person could ever be a friend of God.

Well, as bad as it had gotten out there in the wilderness, God was still with his people, and the most sure sign of God’s presence was that Moses lead the people with a firm hand, a compassionate heart, and a strong will – while also doing it with what he claimed himself was not a gift of speech.

But now, now Moses was dying. Moses could see the Promised Land toward which they had travelled all these many years, but he would not go there, and though he was 120 years old, God would not grant him any more years, and not even a few more days to live to see the Promised Land. Just when the people were finally being given the goal toward which they had worked all these many years, they were losing their guide, their leader, their mentor, their wise and strong captain along the way. How would they go on at this point?

Here we see that God is moving the people to a place in which they are over their heads. The leadership and wisdom of Moses would not be replaced, it couldn’t be. Moses was the only one who would “see God face to face,” and his leadership was one of a kind. However, the true guide, the true leader, the true captain in the journey, of course, was not Moses – even as great as he was – but the true guide is God.

Here, the people, these wandering, intermittently holy people of God, were hopefully reminded that their journey does not rest on Moses’ goodness, or his holiness, or his unique experience of God. Their journey rests in God’s hands, and God’s promises precede any work by Moses, and God’s promises are deeper than any presence of Moses among the people.

It is a hard reality to remember, that when things are going well, we often, ironically, find ourselves put into situations that test us not at our points of strength, but at our points of weakness. This is a kind of humility that is not mere rhetorical modesty. “Oh, I am not so good at that.” Rather, this humility is the humility where we are driven to the place where we cannot any longer rely on our experience, our skills, and our strengths. We are brought to a place where true prayer begins – we are brought to a place where we truly ask for God’s help. For we cannot do it ourselves. Often, we can rely on a kind of functional atheism, for we believe (most of the hours of the day) that success depends on our effort. However, our lives are full of times when we are pushed to the place where we cry out, “help.” The place where true prayer begins.

The Israelites had lost their earthly guide, but were pushed into the “deep water” where they had to find not only inner strength, but had to turn, ultimately, to God in order to find the strength to go on.

It helps now and then to step back and take a long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a small fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the Church’s mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about: We plant the seeds that will one day grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it well. It may be incomplete but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador (1917–1980)

Morning has broken...

2011-10-23T08:30:00.000-04:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

...like the first morning...

Saturday afternoon...joy-filled autumn!!

2011-10-22T17:02:00.000-04:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

A drive in Albemarle County, VA

2011-10-22T15:00:00.000-04:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

Sheep!!

Go deeper

2011-10-20T07:26:00.001-04:00

Every time you close another door--be it the door of immediate satisfaction, the door of distracting entertainment, the door of busyness, the door of guilt and worry, or the door of self-rejection--you commit yourself to go deeper into your heart and thus deeper into the heart of God.

This is a movement toward full incarnation. It leads you to become what you already are--a child of God; it lets you embody more and more the truth of your being; it makes you claim the God within you.

Henri Nouwen ~ The Inner Voice of Love

Shrine Mont bound!

2011-10-17T12:06:00.001-04:00

Teresa of Avila, October 15

2011-10-15T06:32:00.001-04:00

Teresa of Avila 15 October 1582

Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada (later known as Teresa de Jesus) was born in Avila, Spain, 28 March 1515, one of ten children whose mother died when she was fifteen. Her family was of partly Jewish ancestry. Teresa, having read the letters of Jerome, decided to become a nun, and when she was 20, she entered the Carmelite convent in Avila. There she fell seriously ill, was in a coma for a while, and partially paralyzed for three years. In her early years as a nun, she was, by her account, assiduous in prayer while sick but lax and lukewarm in her prayers and devotions when the sickness had passed. However, her prayer life eventually deepened, she began to have visions and a vivid sense of the presence of God, and was converted to a life of extreme devotion.

In 1560 she resolved to reform the monastery that had, she thought, departed from the order's original intention and become insufficiently austere. Her proposed reforms included strict enclosure (the nuns were not to go to parties and social gatherings in town, or to have social visitors at the convent, but to stay in the convent and pray and study most of their waking hours) and discalcing (literally, taking off one's shoes, a symbol of poverty, humility, and the simple life, uncluttered by luxuries and other distractions). In 1562 she opened a new monastery in Avila, over much opposition in the town and from the older monastery. At length Teresa was given permission to proceed with her reforms, and she travelled throughout Spain establishing seventeen houses of Carmelites of the Strict (or Reformed) Observance (the others are called Carmelites of the Ancient Observance). The reformed houses were small, poor, disciplined, and strictly enclosed. Teresa died 4 October 1582. (She is commemorated on the 15th--why not the 14th, I wonder--because the Pope changed the calendar from the Julian to the Gregorian system, a difference of 10 days, on the day after her death.)

Teresa is reported to have been very attractive in person, witty, candid, and affectionate. She is remembered both for her practical achievements and organizing skill and for her life of contemplative prayer. Her books are read as aids to the spiritual life by many Christians of all denominations. Her Lifeis her autobiography to 1562; The Way of Perfection is a treatise on the Christian walk, written primarily for her sisters but of help to others as well; The Book of Foundations deals with establishing, organizing and overseeing the daily functioning of religious communities; The Interior Castle (or The Castle of The Soul) deals with the life of Christ in the heart of the believer. Most of these are available in paperback. 31 of her poems and 458 of her letters survive. Her feast day in the Roman Catholic Church is 15 October. The Lutheran Church (ELCA) commemorates her on December 14 together with St. John of the Cross.

Christ has no body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which He looks
compassion on this world
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Prayer
O God, who by your Holy Spirit moved Teresa of Avila to manifest to your Church the way of perfection: Grant us, we pray, to be nourished by her excellent teaching, and enkindle within us a keen and unquenchable longing for true holiness; through Jesus Christ, the joy of loving hearts, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

written by James Kiefer at Mission St. Clare

Both sides of the mystery

2011-10-14T09:54:00.001-04:00

Dying is not extraneous to life; it is a part of the mystery. And you do not understand life until you stand under death. Yet both sides of the mystery must be experienced and trusted. The Eastern religions speak of the yin and yang of things; nature religions simply speak of darkness and light; the Jewish people speak of slavery and deliverance; we Christians speak of death and resurrection. But we are all pointing to God’s universal pattern of falling/failing and transformation. This is rightly described as being “reborn,” but has less to do with an emotional Church experience than a realigning life experience.

Yes, God is dying in all things, but God is risen in all things too. And both at the same time! Only wisdom can hold both together. Part of the great mystery of life is that it’s just as hard to see the ecstasy and beauty of things as it is to accept the crucifixion of things. Both together are the paschal mystery—Christ is dying; Christ is rising—all the time, everywhere—no exceptions.

~Richard Rohr

Adapted from Hope Against Darkness:
The Transforming Vision of Saint Francis in an Age of Anxiety, pp. 57-58

It's a big world! Amazing video from "Planet Earth"

2011-10-12T18:41:00.002-04:00

Hat tip to Another Best Day blog

The glories of Fall!

2011-10-11T14:00:00.000-04:00

As a child, I was no real fan of Fall. Though I grew up in Vermont, and while I did love the colors, Fall was the beginning of the cold, when activity was limited, when things really felt pretty bitter. The "bleak mid-winter" was just around the corner, and I was one who loved Spring and Summer, and even, at times, Winter, but Fall was just a reminder of the loss of the growth of Spring and the warmth of Summer. Perhaps it is because I now live several hundred miles to the South, but now I love Fall, the colors, the cooler weather, the change in view across the land. I love Fall. Perhaps also it is because I am a bit older, and recognize that our lives are punctuated with endings, our lives have "necessary losses," and this is not altogether a bad thing, but the reality of our lives. We move from Spring, into Summer, and into a long Fall, and then Winter - and this happens again and again, and this also happens in our lives as our lives move from growth to death, and along the way, we have glimpses of stark beauty, even in the midst of decline.

It is a glorious Fall, and I relish in its glory!

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Let us sing

2011-10-10T08:58:00.000-04:00

Come let us sing to the Lord; *
let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *
and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.

For the Lord is a great God, *
and a great King above all gods.

In his hand are the caverns of the earth, *
and the heights of the hills are his also.

The sea is his, for he made it, *
and his hands have molded the dry land.

Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, *
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. *
Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice!

The body is one and has many members

2011-10-07T00:50:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I get tired of the ways that we overly intellectualize and "rhetoricalize" the words of our faith, but when Paul wrote, "just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so is it with Christ"...In other words...we are supposed to work together, get over ourselves and do for one another. Now, let's see if we can get busy doing it!

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

1 Corinthians 12:12-26 (NRSV)

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear would say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

St. Francis' prayer before the crucifix

2011-10-04T08:45:00.000-04:00

The following is said to be St. Francis’ prayer before the crucifix:

Most high, glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my heart. Give me true faith, certain hope, and perfect charity, sense and knowledge, Lord, that I may carry out Your holy and true command. Amen.

Feast of St. Francis of Assisi ~ Prayer of St. Francis by Sarah McLaughlan

2011-10-04T06:00:00.002-04:00

When it is raining...

2011-10-03T09:13:00.000-04:00

When it's cold and raining,
you are more beautiful.

And the snow brings me
even closer to your lips.

The inner secret, that which was never born,
you are the freshness, and I am with you now.

I can't explain the goings,
or the comings. You enter suddenly,

and I am nowhere again.
Inside the Magesty.

~Rumi

Let the earth keep silence

2011-09-30T11:30:00.001-04:00

The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.
~Habakkuk 2:20

Starsia Announces UVa Men's Lacrosse Team Captains for 2012

2011-09-29T11:25:00.000-04:00

Starsia Announces UVa Men's Lacrosse Team Captains for 2012

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Virginia head coach Dom Starsia announced that midfielder Colin Briggs, defenseman Chris Clements, midfielder Matt Kugler, and attackman Steele Stanwick have been selected as team captains for the 2012 campaign.

"I am very pleased to announce our captains for the 2011-2012 academic year," said Starsia. "I have been blessed throughout a long career to have worked closely with some outstanding young men who have served in this capacity. The value of true leadership was never more evident than in this past 2011 National Championship season. Being a captain is neither a popularity contest nor a simple assignment but Colin, Chris, Matt and Steele are clearly in the mold of those who have stood strongly in the recent past. Their selection is the first indication of the sharp focus and intent for this 2012 team."

Briggs, a senior from Narragansett, R.I., was named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship after scoring five goals in UVa's 9-7 triumph over Maryland in the final. Briggs was a second-team selection on the USILA All-America team after tallying 29 goals and 12 assists in 2011. The All-ACC selection was third on the team with 41 points.

Clements, a senior from Baltimore, Md., moved to defense in January from a short-stick defensive midfielder position and also saw time as a long-stick midfielder. Clements appeared in all 18 games in 2011, starting 14 of them. He picked up 46 ground balls and caused 13 turnovers. Clements had three ground balls and two crucial caused turnovers against Maryland in the NCAA finals, helping the Cavaliers to the victory.

Kugler, a senior from Fairfax Station, Va., was a key piece that ran on UVa's second midfield in 2011. He finished with five goals and two assists in 17 games played in 2011. Kugler had important goals for the Cavaliers in the first round overtime win against Bucknell and again in the semifinal round against Denver.

Stanwick, a senior from Baltimore, Md., is a captain for a second season in a row after also winning the Tewaaraton Trophy, awarded to the top collegiate lacrosse player in the country. Stanwick helped set the table for the nation's No. 3 offense. The ACC Player of the Year and USILA first-team All-American, Stanwick contributed 32 goals and 38 assists to rank No. 4 nationally in points per game. His 38 assists ranked No. 3 nationally. Stanwick had nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points in the 2011 NCAA Tournament, four away from matching an NCAA Tournament record set by Eamon McEneaney in 1987.

"We are off to a good start and the potential for outstanding leadership that accompanies today's announcement moves us smartly in the direction of a meaningful finish," said Starsia.

2011-09-29

In memory of Wangari Maathai

2011-09-29T08:48:00.000-04:00

I found this to be a profound and hopeful message. A short video of the hummingbird story being told by Nobel Peace Price recipient Wangari Maathai. She died on September 25th. In her memory:

"I will be a hummingbird" - Wangari Maathai

Seek and find the barriers

2011-09-28T06:46:00.001-04:00

Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find all the barriers
within yourself that you have built against it.
~Rumi

We can start from where we are

2011-09-26T10:17:00.001-04:00

We can start from where we are, with what we have, and imagine and work for the healings that are necessary. But we must begin by giving up any idea that we can bring about these healings without fundamental changes in the way we think and live. We face a choice that is starkly simple: we must change or be changed. If we fail to change for the better, then we will be changed for the worse.

~Wendell Berry

Santos Woodcarving Popsicles

It is not the critic who counts...

T.S. Eliot reads Journey of the Magi

T.S. Eliot's Journey of the Magi

Epiphany

A people in darkness

Christmas Day Sermon - "Good tidings of great joy!"

Christmas Eve Sermon ~ "Let your light shine"

Christmas Eve Sermon ~ "This strange story" ~ Lessons & Carols

Once in Royal David's City

Lo how a rose E'er blooming

Christmas collect

I wonder as I wander - St. Martin in the Fields, Philadelphia

The Christmas Story - wonderful video

Disturb us, Lord

"May the God of peace sanctify you entirely" - Sermon for Advent 3 - The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Remembering Merton ~ December 10, 1968

Thomas Merton - Dec 10 - "we are not converted only once"

Whatever will be, will be

Advent – Putting on the armor of light

Rekindle the light

Gratefulness

God entices us through love

Do churches want transformation?

It's a great gift, to have a sense of the presence and the love of a personal God in your life. ~ Bishop Budde

On mission - Post 2: Elizabeth Drescher

Life

My thoughts are not your thoughts

Middlebury (VT) at 250 years!

Wait patiently

Benedict on hospitality

What is Mission? - post #1

Be the blessed! ~ All Saints Day Sermon ~ 6 November 2011 ~ The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Aquinas on pride

Sin of pride...

One communion and fellowship

For too long the Church has been obsessed with its own internal work­ings

Was Jesus leading a generational movement?

All Souls Day

Rowan Williams on All Saints

All Saints Day

An early Advent?

Blessed are the cheesemakers (and all the Saints!)

Blessed are the cheesemakers (and all the Saints!)

A four-fold Franciscan blessing

Mary Poppins' "bird woman" evicted from St. Paul's Cathedral?

"Halloween is Christian, wonderfully so!" ~Bishop Shannon Johnston

Gandhi's seven sins

Lord, it is night

Moustache growing season

It’s (Almost) Moustache Growing Season!

The Monastery, from 2005 on the BBC

We are meant to shine

Beautiful evening with our church youth group!

23 October 2011 ~ Sermon ~ "prophets of a future not our own"

Morning has broken...

Saturday afternoon...joy-filled autumn!!

A drive in Albemarle County, VA

Go deeper

Shrine Mont bound!

Teresa of Avila, October 15

Both sides of the mystery

It's a big world! Amazing video from "Planet Earth"

The glories of Fall!

Let us sing

The body is one and has many members

St. Francis' prayer before the crucifix

Feast of St. Francis of Assisi ~ Prayer of St. Francis by Sarah McLaughlan

When it is raining...

Let the earth keep silence

Starsia Announces UVa Men's Lacrosse Team Captains for 2012

In memory of Wangari Maathai

Seek and find the barriers

We can start from where we are

For too long the Church has been obsessed with its own internal workings