[RCL]: Genesis 25:19-34; Psalm 119:105-112; Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 13:1-9,18-23 Let us begin with an invocation of the Holy Spirit by John Henry Newman: Come, O Holy Spirit.Come as Holy Fire and burn in us,Come as Holy Wind and cleanse us,Come as Holy Light and lead us,Come as Holy Life and dwell within us.Convict us, convert…

Jesus has such a heart for his church.  In this parable and its explanation, he’s not only addressing his first disciples but, as with all scripture, he’s addressing us too.  This parable could be a way to get us to do a little soil sampling of our hearts, a little analysis to see what kind…

“You are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you.” (Romans 8:9) We don’t often think of it, but of all the New Testament literature, St. Paul’s letters are the oldest sources we have about Jesus – predating the gospels by a couple of decades. And Paul writes that for those who…

Today’s gospel reading is very familiar – the parable of the four soils. Many of us learned it in Sunday school. Millions enjoyed the graphic enactment of the parable in the movie “Godspell.” For centuries, paintings and stained-glass art have represented it. Easy to remember because of the vivid description, we readily envision an ancient…

Everybody knows the old bit about optimists and pessimists—how a pessimist says the glass is half empty and an optimist says the same glass is half full. It’s a familiar platitude. But did you ever stop to think about how terribly important the issue here is? It really matters how you understand that glass. What…

Life on this earth is filled with challenges. One challenge that we all are familiar with is that of learning how to accept that every aspect of life is a mixture of good and evil, of pure and impure. Take for example, the natural seasons of the earth — Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall — and…