Dancing in the Eternal Interflow of Friendship

Readings for Trinity Sunday (Year C) Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 Romans 5:1-5 John 16:12-15 Canticle 13 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on June 15, 2025. “I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new. Shall I not call God the Beautiful, who daily showeth himself so […]

You Are Not a Brick, But a Newborn Bard of the Holy Ghost

Readings for Pentecost Sunday (Year C) Genesis 11:1-9 Acts 2:1-21 John 14:8-17, 25-27 Psalm 104:25-35, 37 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on June 8, 2025. Today we feel the wind beneath our wingsToday the hidden fountain flows and playsToday the church draws breath at last and singsAs every flame becomes a […]

Transforming Wounds into Glory

Readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year C) Acts 11:1-18 Revelation 21:1-6 John 13:31-35 Psalm 148 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on May 18, 2025. This last week, I led a retreat on Spiritual Friendship for clergy at the Bishop’s Ranch in Healdsburg. We read aloud my distillation of the […]

The Lamb Who Makes Shepherd out of SHeep

Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year C) – Good Shepherd Sunday & Mother’s Day Acts 9:36-43 Revelation 7:9-17 John 10:22-30 Psalm 23 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on May 11, 2025. Happy Mother’s Day and Happy Good Shepherd Sunday! It’s not all that uncommon for these two holidays to […]

Breakfast with Jesus

Readings for the Third Sunday of Easter (Year C) Acts 9:1-6, (7-20) Revelation 5:11-14 John 21:1-19 Psalm 30 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on May 4, 2025. A colleague of mine who taught graduate courses in theology said that Christian Spirituality is essentially a question; and that question is, “Do you […]

Invitation to Generosity and Passiontide

Readings for the Fifth Sunday in Lent (Year C) Isaiah 43:16-21 Philippians 3:4b-14 John 12:1-8 Psalm 126 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on April 6, 2025. In today’s Gospel, Mary of Bethany prays with her whole body, arousing multiple senses, and leaning into the earthy dirtiness of everyday life. She pours […]

St. Patrick, Herod, and Pontius Pilate

Readings for the Second Sunday in Lent (Year C) Genesis 15:1-12,17-18 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Luke 13:31-35 Psalm 27 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on March 16, 2025. About fifty years after the 318 bishops gathered for the first ecumenical council and adopted the Nicene Creed, a teenage boy in Britain named Maewyn […]

The Devil can Cite Scripture for his Purpose

Readings for the First Sunday in Lent (Year C) Deuteronomy 26:1-11 Romans 10:8b-13 Luke 4:1-13 Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on March 9, 2025. So, our Lenten journey has begun once again; our Lenten fast in preparation for the great Feast of the Resurrection; our 40 days of […]

“Francis of Assisi” by Hermann Hesse – Prologue

I discovered that one of my favorite authors, Hermann Hesse, wrote a novella about one of my favorite saints, Francis of Assisi, and it’s never been translated into English. Using the original German version and an Italian translation, I have been slowly translating the novella Franz von Assisi (1904), with the help of AI. This […]

The Interior Castle Distilled: “Caterpillar Soup”

Readings for the Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany – Year C Genesis 45:3-11, 15 1 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50 Luke 6:27-38 Psalm 37:1-12, 41-42 This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church Eureka on Sunday February 23, 2025. Over the last seven weeks, several of us have been gathering in the Pierson Room to discuss our reading of The Interior […]