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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

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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