Ascension Day Reminds the Church Who We Are
Here, forty days after experiencing the impossible, grappling with the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead, the disciples are again standing in awe.
Here, forty days after experiencing the impossible, grappling with the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead, the disciples are again standing in awe.
When I was in high school, we moved to the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, which had a long-term companion relationship with the Episcopal Church of Sudan.
When I worked with youth, one of my favorite events was an agape meal. It started as a Seder and I eventually started calling it “What Would Jesus Eat” which I found hilarious.
As this article is being written, I am on the 20th day being home with my husband, two small children, and my mother.
I live in Austin, Texas, where, along with much of the country, I expect to remain under a “Shelter in Place” order during Palm Sunday. What a strange contradiction on a Sunday in which we would ordinarily march around the streets of the church, waving palm branches, and loudly singing, “Hosanna in the highest!”
Palm Sunday will be here in just a few short days and I am not ready for it. I’m not ready for Holy Week as a priest, as a parent, or as an individual person trying to follow Christ. And yet, it’s coming.
“Yes, I understand you are hikers, but have you ever backpacked in the desert?”
Today is the day that many Christians remember and honor the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, or the event in scripture when Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the Temple.
Candlemas is the celebration and blessing of candles associated with the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. The Feast of the Presentation marks the moment Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple as an offering to God, their first born son.