I confess that I don’t really know the date. We have lived in this hotel for nearly a month now and I have lost all sense of time so that it was not evident to me that the calendar would soon turn to July. It was even less clear that the first Sunday of JulyContinue reading “Pandemic Prayers for the Fourth of July”
Tag Archives: poetry
Last Minute Pandemic Prayers for Proper 7B
Though I am struggling to find a new normal, our world continues to turn. It has been announced that there is hope that the EU will open to American tourists leaving me to wonder if this is good news. Is this over? Can we go back to normal? Or does normal mean that we chooseContinue reading “Last Minute Pandemic Prayers for Proper 7B”
Pandemic Prayers for Epiphany 3
I am really excited when poetry takes the national stage. I was surprised when it happened in the beginning of the pandemic. Major news outlets started sharing poems chosen by their editors to speak this moment. Poetry became popular while we have been home in our pajamas. It happens every four years — or nearlyContinue reading “Pandemic Prayers for Epiphany 3”
Lessons and Carols in Coronatide
Christmas will look different this year. Our favorite traditions will not have the same warmth as being gathered in the same sanctuary singing beloved carols and lighting candles for the Light of the World. It will be different, but the promise will remain the same. Christ will be born. Miracles will never cease. As I’mContinue reading “Lessons and Carols in Coronatide”
Words to Speak to the Unknown
I am as uncertain what tomorrow holds as anyone. I’ve done my part. I’ve cast my ballot and now I can only pray that I live in a land that chooses love over hate. I pray so much and fumble for the right words to speak my hope. I admire you so much, dear pastors,Continue reading “Words to Speak to the Unknown”
Pandemic Prayers for World Communion Sunday
In the churches I’ve served, this was always a Sunday people looked forward to. It wasn’t a celebration that they remembered from childhood but it was something that has become meaningful and important. There was always careful planning to make bread, prepare special liturgy and even host special events after worship. The table was alwaysContinue reading “Pandemic Prayers for World Communion Sunday”
Pandemic Prayers for Proper 20
It has been six months. I lost count. I could have sworn it had been longer since my husband redeployed from South Korea and we almost immediately cancelled the vacation I’d been looking forward to for nine months and went into lockdown. We moved across the state but my kids and I remain in lockdownContinue reading “Pandemic Prayers for Proper 20”
Pandemic Prayers for Proper 19
Though I didn’t do anything with the text last week, I’m still thinking about the question Kathryn Matthews posed in her weekly musings in the United Church of Christ’s Sermon Seeds about the grieving parents in the Passover story. How is this OK? How is any of this OK? How can God come along andContinue reading “Pandemic Prayers for Proper 19”
How Shall We Pray?
For the past several weeks, I’ve offered prayers as a gift to my colleagues in ministry who are serving faithfully during this pandemic. I’ve written liturgies following the Revised Common Lectionary that I have hoped were copied and pasted into Facebook Lives and Zooms and every other platform that congregations find themselves gathered in thisContinue reading “How Shall We Pray?”
Pandemic Prayers for the Ascension
At the end of the last week, I sat on a picnic blanket in my backyard with my two babies reading the Ascension from their new Sparkhouse Story Bible. (I discovered that Sparkhouse is offering… More
Cooking with Elsa 