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Holy Week Meditations
Holy Week stands out singularly in the Christian calendar. There is no time like it. One week. A time marked patiently with palms and crosses. For Christians throughout history, it has remained a meaningful time of deep devotion. A whole season to itself, just seven days, culminating in the most terrifying moment.
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The Tie or the Collar
You have a preference. Everyone does. You want your pastor or priest to look a certain way. You know other people have a preference, too. Their preference may match yours. It may not. You know the pastor or priest has her preference. Hopefully you care what that is. The question is not so much whether…
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No More Racists
We struggle with truly understanding racism. Many of us think that racism is what begins inside our hearts. That racism is the necessary outward expression of an internal feeling of bias or racial animus. That one hates another so much that they intentionally push them down and oppress them. We often think that racism is only…
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Of darkness, confusion, and hope
Driving home, we play “I Spy” and I name something black. The sky! she says. Nope! Something else. I say, but I’m thinking “skies are blue” and I’m thinking “it is dusk, so it is more deep purple” and still the thought confuses me. Black Skies Of course, at night the sky is black. And our…
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Too Safe to Save: TREC’s final report
I went to work for Barnes & Noble when I started grad school. The store was in Downtown Crossing in Boston, across from Filene’s Basement. It closed some years ago. Last I heard, the doors were locked and the space has been unused for several years. I worked for Barnes & Noble for several years…
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Loving is more than words. So is GOD.
A long, long time ago, a deeply faithful people were given a name. A very important name. The very name of their god. The same god who was revealed without a proper pronoun, but a description. The popular translation is I AM WHO I AM But even these words in English don’t capture the movement and…
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When tradition must be broken
When the Pharisees enter the story, I see the religious establishment. They are the truth police, arresting those who compromise their view of the world. You are doing what we tell you not to do. Seeing them, I see the church today. In every skeptical comment the Pharisees make and every philosophical trap they try…
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What you don’t understand about Sacraments
The old argument goes children need to understand the sacrament before they receive it. I am still surprised to hear this. As a priest, I hear it from people of all sorts. When they do suggest such a thing to me, I simply ask them Even after they were baptized as infants? The look I…