people of faith engaging creation and justice
I began my writing life as a medievalist when I came to Cornell to do graduate work in the history of art. The Middle Ages had been a passion of mine for years and as I had a healthy intellectual curiosity I chose an academic path. I benefited from taking that path in many ways and do not regret it but I could not fail to notice how rarely the ‘book learning’ touched the passion. What I loved – and wanted more of – was the sensation of walking through a heavy, padded door from the sights, smells and sounds of the street and into the quiet, mysteriously-lighted space of a medieval church. I wanted the flickering of candles against a painted Madonna and Child, the feel of stone that has been cool for hundreds of years. Read more of this post
I’ve been writing a lot about Greenblade recently for various grant proposals and I find myself putting an emphasis on the post-communion prayer that includes this line, which is buried in that lilting “prayer book language” we all love to love:
… send us out to do the work you have given us to do … Read more of this post
A project that began with the ravages of Hurricane Katrina and the horrors of the Superdome and Convention Center just has to honor the Super Bowl win of the New Orleans Saints. I know all the arguments against pro football (although my favorite is George Will who said football represents the worst American qualities – periods of violence punctuated by committee meetings) and I hear the kvetchers who say, it’s just a game and has nothing to do with the Real World, Read more of this post
Imbolc. The Presentation in the Temple (or Candelmas). Groundhog Day.
All of these festivals, which are happening now, in this three-day time, concern the awakening of the earth, the return of light, the hope for spring. The earth is still cold, the ground hard, but there is a stirring deep within the animal lairs, the sleeping seeds, the frozen streams.
The days are noticeably longer now. It is the time when the thing that was born at the dark of the year makes its appearance. In the natural word that thing is the sun whose light seemed to die at Solstice. Read more of this post
