Thoughts from Father Sam Dry Bones Many of you, like me, have multiple connections to New York City. So you are also touched and scared by the announcement that our nation’s largest city is now the center of the U.S. Coronavirus pandemic. We pray for our brothers and sisters who are coping with this unimaginable […]
Hello friends – It was a joy to pray with many of you on Sunday morning. When we got to that last prayer (A Prayer of St. Chrysostum) saying, “You have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them,” […]
Today is the feast day for Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury who died on this day in 1556. We are reminded in Holy Women, Holy Men that he was, “the principal figure of the English Reformation and was primarily responsible for the first Book of Common Prayer of 1549 and for its first revision in […]
Holy Mud This week’s gospel (John 9:1-41) tells the story of Jesus healing a blind man. He spits on the ground, makes a mud out of the dust and saliva, and spreads it on the man’s eyes. When the man washes away the mud, he sees for the first time. In this simple act, Jesus […]
Hello friends – Blessings to you! I hope you are holding up well in the midst of the many challenges before us all. It was really wonderful to pray with so many of you on Sunday. I found myself buoyed by our community and filled with a new appreciation for the power of God’s word […]
Dear Friends – I hope you are all holding up well. I find myself with a higher than normal level of free-floating anxiety. I need to turn to God to be reminded of the eternal, the certain, the good. I am looking forward to being with you tomorrow morning in prayer. We will begin gathering […]
Dear Friends – I know that the growing Coronavirus pandemic has us all on edge. Clearly this is a time when we greatly need each other’s support. But we also know that limiting our contact with others, particularly if we are in one of the identified high-risk groups, is vital to keeping us all healthy […]
Quenching our ThirstOn the Third Sunday in Lent we read a familiar story. (John 4:5-42) Jesus meets a down and out Samaritan woman in the heat of the day at Jacob’s well. In this encounter Jesus lets the woman know that he understands spiritual thirst, and that he has come to bring living water to […]
Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord Lent is a time of preparing ourselves to take in (again) the enormity of God’s love for the world through the events we celebrate in Holy Week and Easter. There are many different ways we might prepare; but most of them include some aspect of self-examination. That […]
St. Paul’s Episcopal ChurchStockbridge, MassachusettsThe Rev. Samuel J. Smith, Rector March 2020 Dear Friends – Right now the most important story is the spread of coronavirus around the world and here in the United States. Since this disease appears to be even more infectious than the flu, there is considerable concern about how to keep […]