Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul
For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed
January 28, 2021
This area for temporary and important messaging. COVID RESOURCES
This area for temporary and important messaging. COVID RESOURCES
For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed
: Psalm 97 • Isaiah 62:6-12 • Titus 3:4-7 • Luke 2:(1-7), 8-20 “And she
The following is the final sermon delivered to the Class of 2020 by the Very
Psalm 72, 111, 113 • 2 Samuel 7:1-17 • Luke 1:39-48a(48b-56) “And it came to
ReadingsActs 14:5–18Psalm 115:1–13John 14:21–26
My sister Jennifer lived until recently in Poway, the suburb of San Diego where, this
ReadingsIsaiah 52:7–10Psalm 2Mark 16:15–20
ReadingsActs 4: 23–31Psalm 93John 3:7–15
When I was very little, I used to visit my mother’s mother. And my mother’s
ReadingsSusanna 41–62Psalm 23John 8:1–11
Readings Ecclesiasticus 17:24–29 Psalm 32:1–8 Mark 10:17–27
Readings Acts 1:15–26 Psalm 15 John 15:1, 6–16
Readings Genesis 4:1–15, 25 Psalm 50:7–24 Mark 8:11–13
Readings Genesis 1:1–19 Psalm 104:1–12, 25 Mark 6:53–56
Readings Hebrews 2:14–18 Psalm 84 Luke 2:22–40
The Sacred and the Profane, by Mircea Eliade, was the first book assigned in Religion
Christmas Day Psalm 66, 67, 116, 117 • Isaiah 11:10–16 • Luke 1:5–25 A stable
The vivid passion story in the gospel of Mark is essential to the meaning
<<Return to Advent Meditations page Psalm 2, 85; 110:1-5(6-7), 132; Micah 4:1-5; 5:2-4; 1 John
Who needs a smart classroom in the holiness of the Cathedral chapel? Jane unwinds
It’s not a topic of conversation at my early morning workout at Dane’s Body Shop,
Psalms 2, 85; Zechariah 2:10-13; John 3: 31-36 Listen to the author read their
I think it’s a very hard question, and it is provoked by a moment in
At the feast of Mary Magdalene at Christ Chapel this Easter season I wrestled once
A prophet, a poet, a preacher, a dreamer, Martin Luther King, Jr. shared the prophet
Friday, December 25 Psalms 2, 85; Micah 4:1-5; 5:2-4; John 3:31-36 Listen to the
The following homily was preached by The Very Rev. Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, Dean and President of
I have been very moved by the illness and death of Oliver Sacks. I first
I often hear seminary being compared with the “real world.” Usually it is contrasted with
Ezekiel 36:24-28
Mark 10:35-45
At Commencement at Harvard University, the minister at the Memorial Church renowned preacher, Peter Gomes, used to tell the graduates this famous bible story:
“As they were being driven out of Eden, and at the east the flaming sword barricaded the tree of life and blocked the way back, Eve turned to Adam and said, ‘My dear, we are entering a time of transition.’”
“So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” Mark 16:8
Historical critics used to argue that the tradition of the discovery of the empty tomb by the women followers of Jesus was secondary to the resurrection appearances to the male disciples and that it was these scenes, when Jesus appears to talk and eat with the disciples, that are the source for resurrection faith. However, Jane Schaberg’s work has persuaded me that the faithful women, prepared by their experience with Jesus, would have been provoked to insight by the shock of the empty tomb.1
“And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.”
Philippians 2:7-8
On this feast of the Holy Cross, I return to a wonderful book by Barbara E. Reid, OP, Taking Up the Cross: New Testament Interpretations through Latina and Feminist Eyes (Minneapolis, Fortress, 2007). With clarity, charity, and compassion the author, vice president and academic dean and professor of New Testament Studies at the Catholic Theological Union, walks through the different images that interpret Jesus’ death in the New Testament and for each of them explores what “taking up the cross” might mean for people of faith.
I love the quote, misattributed to Mark Twain, that “everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does 
anything about it.” My husband, Frank, and I often say that when we grow so tired of each other that we risk running out of topics of conversation, we will always have two: the weather and real estate. The five months of Austin’s relentless heat provides a perennial subject for discussion between us. So I was delighted to be invited to offer advice to our new professor of Church History about how to stay cool in Austin. [Real estate will have to wait for another blog post.]
Cynthia Briggs Kittredge (@cbkittredge) is the 8th Dean and President of Seminary of the Southwest and professor of New Testament. Dean Kittredge holds degrees from Williams College and Harvard Divinity School.
I was ordained on the Wednesday of Easter Week in 1985. The deacon, my friend Louise, processed down the aisle of St. John’s Church in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts and read Luke 24:13-35, the story of how the risen Jesus appeared to two of his former students when they were walking and talking along the road. The man looked like a curious stranger until he began to speak about scripture. He began at the beginning, and he wove the strands together, and he displayed how what they thought was a failed mission was the way it was meant to be. I love imagining Jesus, with all the scripture in his mind and his mouth, juxtaposing the images, sketching the patterns, chanting the prayers, and giving the seminar that elucidated his words about the words on the scroll in the synagogue at Nazareth, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Cynthia Briggs Kittredge (@cbkittredge) is the 8th Dean and President of Seminary of the Southwest and professor of New Testament. Dean Kittredge holds degrees from Williams College and Harvard Divinity School.
In 2002 I took a sabbatical in South Africa where I lectured in Pietermaritzburg and in Cape Town. On my last Sunday I decided to go to church in a prosperous neighborhood of Capetown. I had heard that one of the priests was leaving; it would be her last Sunday and she was a friend of my friend, Beverly. Wilma Jakobsen was a chaplain at the University and she was leaving South Africa, her homeland, to go to work in Los Angeles where she had spent time as a seminary student.
Cynthia Briggs Kittredge (@cbkittredge) is the 8th Dean and President of Seminary of the Southwest and professor of New Testament. Dean Kittredge holds degrees from Williams College and Harvard Divinity School.
The Christmas pageant was the high point of the year for us as kids growing up in my church. Wordlessly Caesar Augustus unrolled a scroll (a decree). The boy who played Joseph stood a bit too far away from the girl in the role of Mary to make a convincing depiction of her as his partner (espoused wife). Everyone was relieved that the delivery of the first born son and wrapping him in swaddling clothes happened off stage, but the story resumed when Mary, in a large readable gesture and with studied deliberation, placed a bundle into the triangular wooden box at the bottom of the chancel steps (laid him in a manger). Shepherds clad in burlap headed up the aisle carrying crooks. Sheep toddled alongside.
What a wonderful occasion this is, as Cynthia Kittredge is installed as the 8th Dean and President of the Seminary of the Southwest! It is a great privilege and joy for me to be here to celebrate with Cynthia, with her family and friends, and with all of you in this seminary community that Cynthia loves so deeply.
The lectionary imposes the practice and discipline of reading, studying, and usually, preaching on the appointed texts for the day.
Today this is more of a discipline than a practice for me, because our daily eucharistic lectionary has dealt the 1st letter of Paul to Timothy.
1 Timothy is not a favorite of mainstream historical biblical scholars, with their Protestant preference for the undisputed Pauline letters, the Paul of freedom and transformation. “For freedom Christ has set us free.”
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