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- Palm Sunday – Keeping Holy Time: Entering the Great Week
- First Sunday in Lent – Keeping Holy Time: From Garden to Desert
- “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” | Sermon for Ash Wednesday
- A Simple Ash Wednesday Devotion
- Transfiguration Sunday: A Glimpse of Glory before the Journey
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“The cornerstone making both one” “O King of the nations, and their desire, the cornerstone, who makes both one: Come and save man, whom you formed from clay.“ For many of us, it carries the weight of disappointment: leaders who divide rather than unite, systems that privilege some and crush others, voices that grow louder…
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“Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness” O Morning Star,splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness:Come and enlighten those who dwell in darknessand the shadow of death. On this day, the light turns. Today, the 21st of December, marks the winter solstice – the longest night, the deepest dark. From here, almost imperceptibly…
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“You open, and no one can shut” O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel;you open and no one can shut;you shut and no one can open:Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house,those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death. Keys are small things, but they can carry…
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“Come and deliver us, and delay no longer” O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples;before you kings will shut their mouths;to you the nations will make their prayer:Come and deliver us, and delay no longer. Roots are usually hidden.They work quietly beneath the surface – anchoring, feeding, holding fast. We tend…
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“Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm” O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel,who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bushand gave him the law on Sinai:Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm. Adonai is not a word we use lightly. Hence, my translation might appear clumsy as…
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Each year, in the final days of Advent, the Church slows its breathing and begins to pray differently. From 17–23 December, we sing or speak the ancient O Antiphons before and after the Magnificat at Evening Prayer, names addressed to Christ, drawn from the deep well of the Old Testament scriptures. The names are not…
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Every year I get to about this point in the Advent season and I feel exhausted, almost as though the “reason for the season” is slipping by. Before I was a priest, I was a professional musician, and the old adage that December pays for January and February’s rent is not really an adage at all, it…
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A Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Advent The Third Sunday of Advent is Gaudete Sunday.Gaudete means Rejoice! A moment of rose-coloured light in the deep purples of waiting. A day when the Church invites us to loosen our shoulders just a little, to breathe, to notice joy even when the candles are still surrounded by night. Joy…
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A Sermon for Second Sunday in Advent If you’ve ever walked the Hadrian’s Wall path in Northumberland, you’ll know the Sycamore Gap tree – an iconic, solitary sycamore tree standing in a dramatic dip in the landscape. For decades it was one of the most photographed trees in Britain. Strong, rooted, quietly majestic. Bizarrely, my…
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An Advent Sunday Reflection On the eve of Advent Sunday – our “New Year’s Eve” in the Church – I often find myself in a place of deep gratitude for the year that has been, pondering the things that have been painful or challenging, reflecting quietly, and also with a growing excitement for the year…
Ruth Greenaway-Robbins 