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Showing posts from February, 2020

The First Sunday in Lent, 1 March 2020

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The First Sunday in Lent, 1 March    2020 Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 Psalm 32 Romans 5:12-19 St. Matthew 4:1-11                                                                                                                  Background: A Quotation to Think About During this Lententide, I shall devote this segment of the blog to quotations that might give depth and a reflective quality for the readings for this day. Elaine Pagels in her book,  Adam, Eve, and the Serpent , muses on the theology of Saint Augustin and his thoughts on temptation and free will. What are your thoughts? “ The desire to master one’s will, far from expressing what Origen, Clement, and Chrysostom consider the true nature of rational beings, becomes for Augustine the great and fatal temptation: ‘The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is personal control over one’s own will’  (proprium voluntatis arbitrium).  Augustine cannot resist reading that desire for self-government

Ash Wednesday, 26 February 2020

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Ash Wednesday, 26 February 2020 Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 Or Isaiah 58:1-22 Psalm 103 Or Psalm 103:8-14 II Corinthians 5:20b – 6:10 St. Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21                                                                                                                  Background:  Ash Wednesday Mary Claire van Orsdal’s words [1] seem to best express not only the intent of the day but it’s deep purpose as well.  Her vision of our humanity and God’s implicit grace further defines the day. Whoever on that medieval day Decided that it had to be ashes To sign the season, was in touch with death But he’d forgotten the place of red earth, Remembered in the gut by those who know Dirt mixed with the blood of woman giving birth. The flesh of one so full of hope cries out, Comes pushing now the growing, wintered well In her womb, wailing songs of the longing For life and love and gentleness of green And a springtime sun to be welcoming  For us, to war