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Calendar & Archives

The Liturgical
Calendar
Stewardship
Prayers
Homilies and Sermons
Margaret's Bench
Lectio + Haiku
Published on Other
Sites

The Liturgical Calendar
| Season |
Day |
2009 -
2010 |
2010 - 2011 |
In the Courtyard |
|
Advent |
First Sunday of Advent |
Nov 29, 2009 |
Nov 28, 2010 |
Prayers of the People for
Advent
Meditation
for Advent
Prayer for
Advent
Quiet Day
Prayers for Advent |
|
Christmas |
Christmas Day |
Dec 25, 2009 |
Dec 25, 2010 |
Litany for
Christmas
Prayers of the People for Christmas
If Mary was a virgin...
The Longest and Shortest Season |
|
Epiphany |
The Epiphany |
Jan 6, 2010 |
Jan 6, 2011 |
Reading: A Story for Epiphany
Prayers
of the People for Epiphany
Prayers of
the People for the New Year
Prayer for
Epiphanies
Prayers of the People for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany |
|
Lent |
Ash Wednesday |
Feb 17, 2010 |
Mar 9, 2011 |
Homily for
Ash Wednesday
Prayers
of the People for Lent
Lenten Longing
Meditation for Lent
Prayers and
Blessings for the Stumbling Path
Stations of the
Cross
|
|
Easter |
Easter Day |
Apr 4, 2010 |
Apr 24, 2011 |
Prayer for Holy Week
Homily for Wed. in Holy Week
Homily for Maundy
Thursday
Prayers of the People for Easter Season
Prayers for Easter Season
An Image for Easter Season
Homily for the Fourth
Sunday of Easter |
| |
Ascension Day |
May 13, 2010 |
Jun 2, 2011 |
Prayers of the People for
The Ascension |
|
Green |
The Day of Pentecost |
May 23, 2010 |
Jun 12, 2011 |
High Wind
and Fire
Meditation for the Green
Season |
| |
Trinity Sunday |
May 30, 2010 |
Jun 19, 2011 |
|
| |
The Transfiguration |
Aug 6, 2010 |
Aug 6, 2011 |
|
| |
All Saints Day |
Nov 1, 2010 |
Nov 1, 2011 |
Meditation for All Saints Day |
| |
All Souls Day |
Nov 2, 2010 |
Nov 2, 2011 |
|
| |
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Prayers of the People for God's Spirit
Homily for the 7th
Sunday after Pentecost
Prayers for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost
Prayers for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost
Homily for the
22nd Sunday after Pentecost
Prayer
of Thanksgiving for All Creation |
Stewardship
Aug 2007/Aug 2008/Sept 2009 --
Stewardship -- Make 'Em
Laugh! -- Is your
church stewardship program ready for a good laugh? Here you’ll
find three sets of original skits that you can use in
your church community.
more..
Prayers
May God bless our feet as we stumble. May God
bless our eyes with light to see the way...
more..
God of unimaginable love, on the first
Christmas You became one of us...
more..
We offer thanks, O God, for all the wonders of your creation, the planets, stars, and all that moves through the infinite expanse of space...
more..
In this courtyard of all souls, let us stand together and pray
to the One who brings us,
every day, out of death and into life. We stand in the presence
of our God.
more..
Living God, Friend of the Heart, Spirit of Life,
we stand together in your presence.
Your hand is laid upon each one of us.
more..
Dear God: In each day help me to find a moment to be
still, to be quiet.
It is in these moments I can feel you most and then
feelings of calm & peace set in.
more..
Oh God, lover of peace and concord,
Bless and prosper the ministries
of all the shepherds you have sent to care for us.
more..
O Holy One, source of mercy, might,
and love,
Make us your people, so that in life
and death we belong to you alone...
more..
Our God—we, your people, stand ready
and open to receive the flame of your Spirit.
Give us the ability to speak your
truth so that others may hear...
more..
O God, who made the world and
everything in it,
we pray with one voice, proclaiming your presence to all
the earth....
more..
Let us stand in grace together and
listen, old and young....
more..
Holy Mother, maker of earth, water,
sky and sea:
You cradled this planet in your arms
in the beginning,...
more..
God of every time and place, help all
who in their journey, step by step,
come to worship you in spirit and in
truth...
more..
In patience and in hope, let us offer our prayers to God, saying with one voice,
We rejoice with joy and singing
— For the coming of the LORD is near...
more..
Oh God, help me find a way to live in your
house today,
so that my spirit may bring life to your
house tomorrow.
more...
With open hearts, let us offer up
our prayers together, saying,
Arise, O God, Hear our prayer.
For the clouds that rise over the mountain, for the mists that
rise over the field...
more...
Dear God, Grant me the courage not to run from fear, but
to walk in love.
more...
Bathed in starlight, we pray together to the One who
created all things, saying,
Show us your child, O God...
more...
Dear God, who made the rocks just the way they are,
rising from the earth;
Who made the stars just the way they are, red stars dying and
new stars being born
more...
In joy and thanksgiving
at Christ's birth,
Let us sing to the Lord a new song,
Refrain: On earth peace, good will among people.
more...
In this season of Advent,
dear God, for the sake of
new life,
let me look ahead with courage and love.
more...
About
responsive prayer...
Homilies and Sermons
March 2010 --
Guest Homily for Ash
Wednesday -- "Ashes, ashes, all fall down..." --
by the Reverend Elizabeth A. Bloch, delivered at St. Paul’s
Episcopal Church, Port Townsend, Washington, on February 17,
2010. more..
November 2008 --
Guest Homily for the
24th Sunday after Pentecost -- “You Shall Be
Holy” --
Lay preacher Lois Holly explores the connection between the two
greatest commandments and what it means to be holy.
more..
July 2008 --
Homily for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost -- “Welcome” --
Delivered at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Port Townsend,
Washington, on June 29, 2008
more..
April 2008 --
Homily for the Fourth
Sunday of Easter -- “A Picture of Abundant
Life” --
Delivered at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Port Townsend,
Washington, on April 13, 2008
more..
March 2008 --
Homily for Maundy Thursday
-- "A Love Story" -- Delivered at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church,
Port Townsend, Washington on March 20, 2008. more..
January 2008 -- “Feet and
Pee — Stories of Attention and Change” --
Delivered at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Port
Townsend, Washington on January 13, 2008.
more..
October 2007 --
Homily for the 22nd Sunday
after Pentecost -- “Out of the Boomerang Trap”
-- Delivered at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Port Townsend,
Washington on October 28, 2007.
more..
April 2007 --
Homily for Wednesday in Holy
Week --
“A Love That Saves” -- Delivered at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Port Townsend,
Washington on April 4, 2007. more..
Published on Other Sites
January
2010
--
Article on haiku published in the
New Spirit Journal. "Haiku: A Spiritual
Practice in Three Lines." It was a gloomy
afternoon, and I felt tired and low on the drive from
Seattle to my home on the Olympic Peninsula. The sky,
water, and highway all reflected back to me in shades of
gray...
March 2009
--
Interview on "Grit for the Oyster" blog. At the Florida Christian Writers' Conference, Debora
Coty approached me about doing an interview for "Grit
for the Oyster," an inspirational blog for writers, and
here it is.
January
2009 --
Interview and
Book Review of
Sacred
Attention
with poet and writing teacher Sheila Bender posted on
her web site
Writing it Real.
December
2007
-- Excerpt from
Sacred
Attention --
I met my friend Sam at
college, back in the early seventies. Sam had been
adopted as an infant in a "blind" adoption, so he grew
up knowing nothing about his genetic parents...
--
posted on
DailyOM
-- Nurturing
Mind Body and Spirit.
May 2007
--
"With
Apologies to Dana Carvey"
Ruminations on church ladies -- fanciful, real, and
future -- posted on
Episcopal Life Online.
Margaret's Bench
February 2010 --
All through childhood I thought I’d be a teacher when I
grew up, except for one moment of epiphany at the age of
about ten, when I had an surprising vision of myself as
a writer in my middle years...
more...
January 2010 --
When I was a kid,
I thought I’d grow up to be a teacher. In the first
grade, I wanted to be a first grade teacher. In the
second grade, I wanted to be a second grade teacher. In
junior high, I saw myself as a junior high teacher, and
in high school I wanted to teach high school...
more...
December 2009 --
Happy Birthday to the Courtyard – three years old this
month. 2009 was my year of haiku.
more...
November 2009 --
Last month, I wrote about being in the in-between time,
waiting for my haiku book to arrive from the printer.
After reading what I wrote, my sister Rose emailed from
her home in Australia and asked, “What does the
in-between time feel like...?”
more...
October 2009
--
I am in the in-between time.
My new book,
Haiku – The Sacred Art, went to the printer in
mid-September. I can’t change anything in it anymore,
which is a good thing...
more...
September 2009
--
more...
July/August 2009
-- Six years ago, my faith community of St. Paul’s
fell into a fiery pit of internal dissension that, at
times, looked as if it might be hot enough to consume
and destroy the parish...
more...
June 2009 --
A numen is a spirit that inhabits and gives life
to a place, object, or natural happening. The word’s
Latin root means both divine power and a ‘nod of the
head’...
more...
May 2009 --
A few weeks ago, our 21-year-old Plymouth Voyager
finally gave up the ghost. Time to say goodbye...
more...
April 2009 --
Near the end of March, David and I traveled to Portland
so that I could attend a lecture and workshop given by
Diana Butler Bass at Portland’s Trinity Episcopal
Cathedral...
more...
March 2009 --
My first-ever Episcopal service occurred fourteen years
ago, just a few days after Ash Wednesday. It was the
first Sunday of Lent, and the preacher’s message was not
at all what I expected...
more...
February 2009 --
On a beautiful blue-sky Saturday near the end of
January, in an odd-shaped room of a century-old house of
worship, ten pilgrims joined in a session of reading
deeply into sacred poetry and responding with sacred
poetry of our own...
more...
January 2009 --
It’s Christmas Eve, and I’m remembering an evening
almost exactly three years ago — a starlit night that
held deep surprise, fear, awe, unexpected encounters on
the road, and love’s spirit embodied in human form...
more...
December 2008 --
Happy Birthday to the Courtyard — two years old
this month...
more...
November 2008 --
What a strange and mysterious idea, that what’s behind
everything is love. That the fundamental creative force
— the Cosmic DNA — is love. That the loves I offer,
receive, and witness each day are sparks thrown out from
that primal flame...
more...
October 2008 --
I was seven years old when I first saw Walt Disney’s
Snow White. Afterward, I was consumed by a vision of
my second-grade class performing the story ourselves,
complete with seven dwarves in brightly-colored outfits.
I would write and direct this play...
more...
September 2008 --
On a gray Saturday morning, I joined some women for a
Quiet Day. Our presenter asked us to write down a past
event when we felt the love of God—God’s love—active in
our lives. And the most surprising memory popped right
into my mind...
more...
August 2008 --
It has taken much of my adult life for me to begin—just
begin—to give Love the respect that Love deserves.
more...
July 2008 --
At some point during my youth, while I was still
attending church because my parents made me do it, I
grew at first uncomfortable, then puzzled and put off,
and finally disbelieving at all that LOVE stuff thrown
at us pew-sitters, from hymns to prayers to Bible
readings to sermons.
more...
June 2008 --
Three separate times, a love without bounds showed
itself to me so that I looked and paid attention, so
that I could see.
more...
May 2008 --
Last December, in an effort to bring abundant life into
our home, David and I got a puppy. We named him Bingo.
If abundant life involves sleep deprivation and
obsessive interest in someone else’s bathroom habits,
then Bingo brought it, right away.
more...
April 2008 --
Every Sunday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Port
Townsend, we stand and say the Nicene Creed together. It
is my least favorite part of the service.
more...
March 2008 --
"“These are the first two poems I’ve ever written
in my life,” said Jeff. As the class instructor, I was
glad to hear both surprise and pleasure in his voice.
more...
February 2008 --
"Today I'm going to talk about feet and pee, in stories
of attention and change..." — From a talk delivered at
the Quimper Universalist Unitarian Fellowship's Sunday
services, January 13, 2008.
more...
January 2008 --
Our first dog, Jackie, was a tri-color basset hound
named in honor of Jack Benny, one of David’s all-time
favorite show biz personalities...
more...
December 2007 --
Happy birthday to the Courtyard—one year old this
month...
more...
November 2007 --
I’m deeply attached to my “To Do” list. How would I live
without it? The tasks swirl around me, and at times I’m
frozen, drowning in a sea of possibilities. I need to
write them down, simply to choose what to do next. And
so the trap quietly closes...
more...
October 2007 --
We adopted Katie from the local animal shelter about
four years ago, just before Thanksgiving in 2003. The
folks at the pound had the phone number of her former
owners, and before signing the papers, I gave them a
call. It was an awkward conversation...
more...
September 2007 --
Three days after my mystical experience in the Safeway
parking lot — three days after I was given a revelation
of the essential, fundamental love-ableness built into
all human beings — I walked into a frightening and
infuriating demonstration of its opposite...
more...
July/August 2007 --
On an October afternoon, Tom Waits’ gravelly voice,
flamboyant lyrics, and diamond revelations in the grit
of city street life felt like perfect accompaniment to
the fir trees, horse barns, and small-town neighborhoods
that I passed in my car...
more...
June 2007 --
You know what drives me nuts about the recent spate of
books begging me to find salvation and give up religion
before it’s too late? Books arguing not only that God
doesn’t exist, but that religion is a greater threat to
humanity than avian flu and reality TV combined?
more...
May 2007 --
This month is the 10-year anniversary of my confirmation
in the Episcopal Church. I had confirmed my baptismal
vows once before, in the Evangelical United Brethren
Church, when I was about 12 years old. Then a few years
later, I took it back.
more...
April 2007 --
It’s April, and the dandelions are popping out
everywhere, shamelessly yellow. If dandelions could
write their own creation story, I wonder if the story
would say that the first dandelion was made in the image
of God.
more...
March 2007 --
The Stations of the Cross didn’t play much part in my
Protestant upbringing. I remember some hair-raising
sermons on the crucifixion itself, but I don’t remember
spending much time on the stages of the journey from the
trial to the tomb, which is what the Stations are all
about.
more...
February 2007 --
The proposal to build a courtyard at my home parish of
St. Paul’s called for sand-set pavers to be laid in the
area between the church building and the parish hall,
and for the pattern of a labyrinth to be inlaid in the
paved floor. Diane, a parish artist, took charge of
designing and making the labyrinth's rosette center.
more...
January 2007 --
In the commercial world, the Christmas season has a long
youth and a short old-age: born in mid-autumn, weaned
the day after Thanksgiving, and dead by the close of the
New Year's Eve sales. In the church calendar, Christmas
is the shortest season of the year.
more...
December 2006 -- I’ve been a writer ever since I could read, and I’ve been a
thief ever since I could write.
In the first grade, I was publicly unmasked as a plagiarist
during show and tell when I tried to pass off a story from Highlights magazine as my own.
more...
Lectio + Haiku
February 2010 -- I
met with twelve others in the Leffler living room on the
campus of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle to write haiku
inspired by themes of the Epiphany season. The focus of
our inspiration was a poem by Jalaluddin Rumi. The
Dream That Must Be Interpreted. This place is a
dream. Only a sleeper considers it real...
more...
January 2010 -- For
the last days of the Christmas season and the first
weeks of Epiphany, a song of intimacy and awe.
Psalm 139 : 1 - 18 O LORD, you have searched me
and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise
up...
more...
December 2009 -- For
the month of Advent and Christmas, a song of remembrance
and hope. Psalm 126 : 1-6 When the Lord
restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who
dream...
more...
November 2009 -- An
excerpt from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” in Leaves
of Grass (1855). The little one sleeps in its
cradle, I lift the gauze and look a long time, and
silently brush away flies with my hand...
more...
October 2009 -- The voice
of Wisdom, present at Creation, speaks in this passage
taken from Ecclesiasticus, a book of the Apocrypha.
Ecclesiasticus 24 I came forth from beyond
this world, And I covered the earth like a mist. I had
my tent in the heights, And my throne in the clouds...
more...
September 2009 -- The
wisdom of a Taoist sage, as interpreted by a Trappist
monk. "The Need to Win" When an archer
shoots for nothing / He has all his skill. / If he
shoots for a brass buckle / He is already nervous...
more...
July/August 2009 -- Isaiah
42:16 I will lead the blind by a road they do not
know, by paths they have not known I will guide them...
more...
June 2009 -- Matthew
5:13-16 You are the salt of the earth; but if salt
has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?
It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and
trampled under foot...
more...
May 2009 -- This month’s
passage is taken from the Apocrypha. The Wisdom of
Solomon 7:15-22 "Solomon Prays for Wisdom"
May God grant me to speak with judgment, and to have
thoughts worthy of what I have received; for he is the
guide even of wisdom and the corrector of the wise...
more...
April 2009 -- A
prayer from the Haggadah. Dayeinu – For
that alone, we would have been grateful! How many
wonderful deeds did God perform for us! Had the
Compassionate one brought us out of Egypt and not split
the sea for us – Dayeinu...!
more...
March 2009 -- SONG OF
SOLOMON 3:1-5 “LOVE’S DREAM” Upon my bed at
night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but
found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer...
more...
February 2009 --
EVERY PARTICLE OF THE WORLD IS A MIRROR by Mahmud Shabestari.
Every particle of the world is a mirror; In each atom
lies the blazing light of a thousand suns...
more...
January 2009 -- I
was led to this passionate passage from Hosea by the new
book Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening and
Awareness by Christine Valters Painter and Lucy
Wynkoop, OSB. Hosea 2:14-16, 18-20
Therefore, I will now allure her, and bring her into the
wilderness, and speak tenderly to her...
more...
December 2008 --
The passage for this month of Advent and Christmas is
taken from Stephen Mitchell’s translation of Lao-tzu’s
Tao Te Ching. We join spokes together in a
wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon
move...
more...
November 2008 --
These verses strike me in a new way when I consider the
possibility that God is Love. Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to
another...
more...
October 2008 --
Psalm 114 Hallelujah! When Israel came out of
Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange
speech, Judah became God's sanctuary and Israel his
dominion...
more...
September 2008 --
EZEKIEL 37:1-10 THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES. The
hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by
the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of
a valley; it was full of bones.
more...
August 2008 --
Inspired by Psalm 62, from Psalms for Troubled Times:
Prayers of Hope and Challenge by Barbara Gibson.
Psalm 62 "Waiting for Help" My soul waits in
silence for the One, for a message that can save me.
more...
July 2008 -- THE
GUEST HOUSE by Rumi, the 13th Century Sufi mystic poet.
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
more...
June 2008 -- Psalm 131:
1-3 O LORD, I am not proud; I have no haughty
looks. I do not occupy myself with great matters, or
with things that are too hard for me.
more...
May 2008 -- From Psalms
for Troubled Times: Prayers of Hope and Challenge by
Barbara Gibson. Psalm 3 “Help from Sophia”
O Wisdom, how many are my doubts! My cynical thoughts
disturb me, saying “There is no hope for the world.”
more...
April 2008 -- Psalm
148:1-14 Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD
from the heavens; praise him in the heights!
more...
March 2008 -- Psalm 116:
1-4; 6-8 I love the LORD, because he has heard my
voice and my supplications.
more...
February 2008 --
HURRY TO THE SOURCE OF LIFE by Rumi, the 13th Century
Sufi mystic poet. How could the soul not take
flight / When from the glorious Presence / A soft call
flows sweet as honey, comes right up to her / And
whispers, “Rise up now, come away.”
more...
January 2008 --
Isaiah 35:1-8 The wilderness and the dry land shall be
glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the
crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy
and singing...
more...
December 2007 --
James 5:7-8 Be patient, therefore, beloved, until
the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the
precious crop from the earth, being patient with it
until it receives the early and the late rains...
more...
November 2007 --
Ecclesiastes 2:24-25, 3:1-8 There is nothing
better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find
enjoyment in their toil... For everything there is
a season, and a time for every matter under heaven...
more...
October 2007 -- Psalm 121
I lift up my eyes to the hills -- from where will my
help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven
and earth...
more...
September 2007 -- In this month's
passage, Paul riffs on the interdependence of
all people. I Corinthians
12:13b–22, 24–26 We were all made to drink
of one Spirit...
more...
August 2007 -- Last month,
Wisdom told about being present with God at the creation
of the cosmos. For this month, I chose a variety of
verses taken from the same book. Selected Proverbs
Just as water reflects the face, so one human heart
reflects another. ...
more...
July 2007 -- Proverbs
8:1-4; 22-31 Does not wisdom call, and does not
understanding raise her voice? On the heights, beside
the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand...
more...
June 2007 --
On this page last month, the Bride sang to her
Bridegroom. For the month of weddings, it seems only
fair to let the Bridegroom respond. Song of Solomon 4:
1-7, 9 How beautiful you are, my love, how very
beautiful...
more...
May 2007 --
For the lusty month of May, a portion of Solomon’s Song
of Songs. Song of Solomon 2: 8-17 The voice
of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the
mountains...
more...
April 2007 --
A passage with the promise that after famine comes
abundance. Joel 2: 21 - 29 Do not fear, O
soil; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great
things!
more...
March 2007 --
Lent is a season for coming to terms with who we really
are. Wisdom of Solomon 7: 1-6 I also am mortal,
like everyone else, a descendant of the first-formed
child of earth;
more...
February 2007 --
Winter turns toward spring, and the heart of the
psalmist turns toward God.
Psalm 42 : 1- 7 As the deer longs for the
water-brooks, so longs my soul for you, O God.
more...
January 2007 --
For the last days of the Christmas season and the first
weeks of Epiphany, a song of intimacy and awe.
Psalm 139 : 1- 8 O LORD, you have searched
me and known me.
more...
December 2006 --
For the month of Advent and Christmas,
a song of remembrance and
hope. Psalm 126 : 1-6
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
more...
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