Month: February 2014

companionship in suffering

  This image of Mary with the crucified Jesus hangs in the Common Room of the Cathedral and is often a reminder to me that our sufferings, diseases, betrayals and pain is understood by a God who took human form as a way to connect with us. It would be...

the sing about us

  If one were to stand behind the altar in the cathedral's Saint Martin Chapel, face the reredos (the wall behind the altar) and look up…this is what one would see. Mary is holding Jesus, flanked by angels on either side and the rays of gold descend from Mary's feet...

death and life in friendship

  In the shadow of the memorial markers in our lives which mark the graves of dead and dying relationships, there are always new blossoms forming.  This set of tough old wild roses near the grave marker of a dead dean remind me that in the shadow of death is...

water

Water pours and pours from our baptism and though our lives moistening, washing, soaking, soothing, cleaning. Walls of water pour over the flagstones of our lives reflecting God's light back to God with the waves of joy and grief. We lert the water flow over us and we know that...

swimming in prayer

The fountain in Dominick Park is one of my favorite features of the cathedral complex.  The water flows and flows and flows like a curtain of hope and regeneration.  Kai, being a water dog in a desert, gravitates to the park and to the fountain.  He will sit on the...

limiting beliefs

  This statue of an angel holding a shell stands gently atop the vestibule from the Clarkson door beneath the southeast tower on which our bees will soon be installed. If one were to emerge from Dagwell Hall and climb the stairs to the chapter offices, the statue would be...

showing up

We show up.  That is what we Christians do. We arrive in our churches with this aching longing to be connected to people; while at the same time knowing from experience that those same people will hurt us from time to time. We show up and we stand there with...

mysticism – an equal opportunity option

  Recently, I was in Dominick Park across from the cathedral with Kai and noticed these berries clinging to a bush. They quickly became an invitation to consider the sky beyond them and then time seemed to sputter and stall; and I began to weep at how beautiful the world...

fragile flowers

This flower is surviving the chill of mid winter near the cathedral wall. Last night someone asked me why I do what  do.  They asked me why I was a priest.  I was tired and aware that my answer meant a lot to this person in this moment and I...

here there be dragons

  This breathtaking window in the cathedral's nave depicts Eve in the Garden being tempted by a frightening and oddly beautiful serpent. The Dean at the time had the window designed to incorporate his wife's image as Eve but absented his own image as Adam in favor of a majestic,...