In Soulful Spirituality: Becoming Fully Alive and Deeply Human, David Benner writes about learning to pay attention as an important spiritual practice. He writes, “This sort of attentive awareness is sometimes described as contemplation. Contemplation is an apprehension of existence that is wide awake and uncluttered by thought. … Brenner acknowledges that “this act of [...]

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For al of you who are hard on yourselves, here are some words for your prayer. (Thanks for alerting me to this wisdom, Emily, from a modern martyr of the faith.) This is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future [...]

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Good Friday ~ April 6, 2012 ~ Service of Shadows                                    Good Friday worship at St. Stephen begins at 7:00 PM Our Good Friday “worship is marked not by excessive sorrow, as if we are pretending that Christ is still dead, but rather by solemn devotion.  For even on this second of the Three Days we [...]

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At the beginning and at the end of Lent, I am called to do two things that I find very hard. To begin Lent, I must make the sign of the cross in ashes on the foreheads of people I love, and say words that pierce through all of our denial of death: “Remember that [...]

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Maundy Thursday ~ April 5, 2012                                      Maundy Thursday worship at St. Stephen begins at 7:00 PM  “On Maundy Thursday, the first of the Three Days, the church participates in one of the constants of human life: marking significant occasions with a meal.”  According to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and in Paul’s letters, “at the last supper [...]

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