Daily Word of Grace (May 21, 2021)

Daily Word of Grace # 246 (May 21, 2021) If the confession in “The Holy Eucharist: Rite Two” is anything, it is comprehensive: “Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left...

Daily Word of Grace (May 20, 2021)

Daily Word of Grace # 245 (May 20, 2021) One of the most beautiful songs by Fleetwood Mac is their 1975 wistful gem “Landslide”, written and sung by the incomparable Stevie Nicks while she was in Aspen, Colorado: “Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?  Can the child...

Daily Word of Grace (May 19, 2021)

Daily Word of Grace # 244 (May 19, 2021) One of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century is Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (1879-1880), in which he describes the strained relationship between the dissolute father Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his...

Daily Word of Grace (May 18, 2021)

Daily Word of Grace # 243 (May 18, 2021) In 1927 legendary blues guitarist Blind Willie Johnson recorded the song, “In My Time of Dying”, which was later covered by Bob Dylan on his 1962 debut album (Dylan used the lipstick case of girlfriend Suze Rotolo as a guitar...

Daily Word of Grace (May 17, 2021)

Daily Word of Grace # 242 (May 17, 2021) A particularly powerful collect (brief, theologically loaded prayer) in The Book of Common Prayer is this one: “O God, who hast prepared for those who love thee such good things as pass man’s understanding: Pour into our hearts...

Daily Word of Grace (May 14, 2021)

Daily Word of Grace # 241 (May 14, 2021) My parents are from Denver, Colorado and so three times when I was growing up in Virginia we took road trips to Colorado to see our relatives.  The first of these trips was in the summer of 1976, when I was seven.  While in...

Daily Word of Grace (May 13, 2021)

Daily Word of Grace # 240 (May 13, 2021) One of the defining characteristics of Jesus’ earthly ministry is his compassion—as Matthew assures us in his account of the gospel: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless,...

Daily Word of Grace (May 12, 2021)

Daily Word of Grace # 239 (May 12, 2021) One of the psalms frequently read during the “Morning Prayer” service in The Book of Common Prayer is the “Jubilate” (Psalm 100): “O be joyful in the Lord all ye lands; serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence...

Daily Word of Grace (May 11, 2021)

Daily Word of Grace # 238 (May 11, 2021) We live in a world in which it is often dangerous to be vulnerable, to let down our guard, take off our mask, and be who we really are.  In his beautiful 1986 book Lion and Lamb the late Brennan Manning describes the...

Daily Word of Grace (May 10, 2021)

Daily Word of Grace # 237 (May 10, 2021)  After leaving the progressive British rock band Genesis, Peter Gabriel embarked on a stellar solo career.  His first hit was “Solsbury Hill” (1977) in which he sings about a spiritual experience he had atop Little Solsbury...