I don't know about you, but I don't like letting go. I don't like to say goodbye. When we allow ourselves to care - when someone's presence becomes important to us, when we open our heart to someone and we notice how our spirits lift when he or she walks into the room, we will probably be sad when the…

I've been pondering with some bemusement the timing of the election for the tenth bishop of New Hampshire. I don't know how or why the decision was made to schedule the election so close to the feast day of the ascension, but in any case, here we are, praying our way toward Saturday accompanied by these images from the Book…

For all its misuses, love is a valuable word, pointing to one of the most essential qualities of human life. And love is a gateway to God, for God is love. So let's talk about love -- today's readings are practically awash in it. By my count, the word “love” shows up a full nine times in today's Gospel: Jesus…

And yet, interestingly enough, the image of Jesus as a good shepherd is one of the Church's best-loved images of Jesus. Every year on the Fourth Sunday of Easter, we celebrate what is sometimes called Good Shepherd Sunday and we read a passage from the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John. What meaning does this image have for us…

A ripple of laughter flowed around the table, followed by a rather pregnant pause.  I had the distinct impression that all eyes were about to turn toward me.  Was I going to answer Noah’s question or not?  I looked at him for a moment, considering what to say, and finally offered a few thoughts.  The conversation moved mercifully on.  But…

And then he says that line that we know so well: “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” This saying of Jesus was so basic to his mission that it shows up in each of th

Today’s Gospel can be applied just as vigorously to contemporary social and political issues.  Here comes Jesus, charging through the temple with his whip of cords, maybe not hurting anybody but certainly making a good deal of commotion as he drives out the sheep and cattle from the temple’s outer area, pours out the

Of course I had heard of Alexandra Dawson. You don't have to have lived long in the Pioneer Valley -- or anywhere else in New England, for that matter -- to know Alexandra's name! Everyone recalls her in terms that suggest a force of nature. She was a woman of formidable intelligence and wit -- someone with an imposing physical…