Presby-Musings

On the outer wall of the Our Lady of Assumption church in medieval town of Erice, Sicily is a whole row of marble crosses that were embedded there in the early 1400’s.   In the early medieval period, the main church of Erice was at the very highest point of the town, but because people were still practicing pagan rituals to Venus, the Roman goddess of fertility,  in the early 1300’s, the church was built on the site of the ancient temple to erase it from memory.  Aside from some large foundation stones, the aforementioned marble crosses were the only decorations from Venus’ temple that were included in the construction of the new church.  I got to thinking about the whole thing after I took a photo of one of the crosses.  The church was dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and this church was built on the site of Venus, the goddess of fertility.  I wondered if there was something deeper at work—even deeper than the intentions of those medieval b...

Today is the Fourth Sunday of the season of advent, and as we've already seen, the day we light the Candle of Love.  The Fourth Sunday of Advent has been celebrated by the historic Church as a day when everything is turned upside down.  The proud are made low, the fortunes of the poor are lifted--and all of this comes from the passage of Scripture that we'll be reading shortly from the Gospel of Luke.   In the Middle Ages this particular Sunday in Advent became widely known as the Feast of Fools.  Wealthy and high-born people would dress like paupers and paupers would dress like nobles.  The clergy would often become targets for lampooning and jest--often to what we might consider extremes.   The idea behind this celebration was simple: Through Jesus, God turned the world upside down.  The old order is no more.  There is equity at last.  For those who have been on the bad end of things there is now justice, mercy and peace. For those w...

It's almost here.   Christmas that is. It feels like we've been waiting for a while, doesn't it? Some of us have been waiting in expectation--the kind of expectation that we used to feel when we were small.  For whatever reason, this year seems different, this year feels--special. Some of us have been waiting in deep grief.  It's the first year without the loved ones we lost last year.  Or maybe it's the tenth.  This season brings none of the expectations and excitement that it used to.  We might feel snatches of joy, and perhaps a smile or two.  But our grief is always there, like a familiar unwelcome burden that aches our shoulders to carry, but we can't set it down. Some of us have been waiting with dread.  Nothing has worked out like we planned.  Families are at odds, perhaps and we're dreading that dinner or that get together.  Maybe we plodded through everything we experienced so far checking things off of our list--jus...

Today we're going to continue the sermon series that we started a couple of weeks ago--a sermon series entitled, "Making Room for Christ."  The basic premise behind this sermon series is more of an exhortation than a premise: "Don't become so consumed with the coming of Christmas, that you miss the coming of the Christ ."  In other words,  even for those of us who think we know better--it's far too easy to lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas in a culture that seems hell-bent on ensuring we do.  I'm going to begin today by reading the passage of Scripture we'll be studying-- Luke 1:26 -38: 26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.   29 Mary was greatly trouble...