December 17, 2024 It must have been quite a year to live in Paris! Together with the usual round of yearly events, the city hosted the Olympic games for the first time in one hundred years, and earlier this month, the reopening of the gothic cathedral of Notre Dame. The rebirth of that cathedral certainly…
Harvest Thanksgiving / Christ the King November 24, 2024 II Samuel 23:1-7 Revelation 1:4-8 John 18:33-37 Our readings today are not the readings set for Thanksgiving. They are the readings set or the last Sunday in the season of Pentecost: the feast of Christ the King. The feast day of Christ the King was introduced…
Pentecost XXVNovember 10, 2024Ruth 3:1-17 Hebrews 9:24-28 Mark 12:38-44 The story of the widow who put her last pennies into the temple collection plate is a Sunday school favorite – and a favorite with preachers when it comes to asking for money! The moral of the tale in these contexts is usually quite simple: It…
13 octobre, 2024Job 23:1-9, 16-17 Hébreux 4:12-16 Marc 10:17-31 L’une des paroles les plus dures et les plus mémorables de Jésus parle franchement et sans ambiguïté de l’argent. Sa déclaration a mis mal à l’aise plus d’un pape fortuné, sans parler des ministres appelés à servir des congrégations riches ou à l’aise. Même les disciples…
Pentecost XIX September 29, 2024 Esther 7 :1-10 James 5 :13-20 Mark 9 :38-50 There is an old joke in ecumenical circles about the way in which Christians view each other’s denominations. St. Peter was giving a guided tour of heaven to a group of new arrivals. They were thrilled to see how beautiful it all was, and…
Pentecost XVISeptember 8, 2024Song of Solomon 2 :8-13 James 1 :17-27 Mark 7:1-23 Yesterday was an important day in St. Esprit’s calendar – indeed, a significant day in the calendar of the Episcopal Church. Our very own Elias Neau – whose icon you can see at the front of our church beautifully drawn by Nita – was…
Fifteenth Sunday after PentecostSunday, September 1st 2024 Song of Solomon 2:8-13 James 1:17-27 Mark 7:1-23 Have you ever had to dress in a certain way to feel that you belong? Or even to prove that you are who you say you are? I sometimes have to wear a clerical collar for that purpose, and people…
Pentecost XIVAugust 25, 2024 I Kings 8 :22-43 Ephesians 6 :10-20 John 6 :56-69 It can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that it is Presidential election season in the United States of America. When I was younger, I quite enjoyed the excitement of watching the United Kingdom results come in one by one during the night as the count…
Pentecost XIIIAugust 18, 2024I Kings 2:10-3:13 Ephesians 5:15-20 John 6:51-58 If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life within you. For many Christians, one of the most difficult things about the pandemic a few years ago was the fact that it wasn’t…
Pentecost XIIAugust 11, 20242 Samuel 18:5-33 Ephesians 4 :25-5:2 John 6 : 35-51 Does anyone still remember all seven of the deadly sins? Even if we never learned the list, I’m sure that we could name at least four or five of them, even if it was just by guessing! Theologians used to divide them into two…