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For the NT reading: Acts 1:6-14  [caption id="attachment_702" align="alignleft" width="300"] The Chapel of the Ascension, Jerusalem[/caption] The disciples say, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the Kingdom to Israel?” Jesus replies, “It is not for you the times or periods that the Father has set...

28 May, 2017

For the Gospel: John 14:15-21 [caption id="attachment_547" align="alignleft" width="279"] Christ, Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, Mural from the catacomb of Commodilla, late 4th century.[/caption] Jesus said, ”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you...

27 May, 2017

For the Gospel: John 14:1-14 [caption id="attachment_686" align="alignleft" width="413"] The Last Supper by Fritz von Uhde (1886)[/caption] Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so,...

27 May, 2017

[caption id="attachment_667" align="alignleft" width="341"] The Raising of LazarusLĂ©on Joseph Florentin Bonnat (1833-1922)[/caption] It’s appropriate that on this last Sunday before Palm Sunday and Holy Week we hear the story of what Saint John presents as the last mighty act of Jesus' ministry—a mighty act that, according...

01 April, 2017

  [caption id="attachment_640" align="alignleft" width="393"] A Medieval Picture of the Universe: humanity at the fringes looking in.[/caption] People in the Middle Ages* assumed that the sun went round the earth. Given what they saw every day, that was a perfectly reasonable assumption. Because we no longer share...

13 March, 2017

It had begun the week before.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke are agreed about that--the week before, with that never-to-be-forgotten conversation at Caesarea Philippi. Perhaps “conversation” was hardly the word for it.   It had been more of a quarrel, really, if we are to trust Matthew and...

25 February, 2017

For the Gospel: Matthew 5:1-12 I would like to spend a few moments this morning looking with you at the passage we just read for the gospel, the so-called “Beatitudes,” presented by Matthew as the prologue to Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.” Surely it’s one of...

29 January, 2017

John the Baptist is back with us again this morning. He appears a lot during the seasons of Advent and the Epiphany, doesn’t he? Today we have part of St. John’s take on him—St. John, who always has a slightly different slant on things from...

16 January, 2017

[caption id="attachment_558" align="alignleft" width="359"] Francesco Albani (1578-1660), Baptism of Christ(http://public-domain-images.blogspot.com/)[/caption] “Then,” Saint Matthew tells us—that is, while John the Baptist was preaching—“Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan.” Jesus comes with a purpose: “to be baptized by him”—and so Matthew prepares us for the conversation...

11 January, 2017