Therefore, let us keep the feast
There are key differences between rest, entertainment and festival (I depend upon the insights of
June 28, 2015
This area for temporary and important messaging. COVID RESOURCES
This area for temporary and important messaging. COVID RESOURCES
There are key differences between rest, entertainment and festival (I depend upon the insights of
Before Mom died in 2004, she and my dad lived in a beach house on the west end of Galveston Island. Afterward, Dad moved to Dallas, but the beach house stayed in the family, and a number of our collective belongings remain there—including Mom’s books.
Among them are many volumes I know she read: Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s Gift from the Sea, Kathleen Norris’s Cloister Walk, and Rosamunde Pilcher’s The Shell Seekers, to name a few. Others, I know she never cracked; they’re too pristine, lacking the warps and creases of beach-combed books.
Still others I know she only partly read. I know this because of the bookmarks she left in them.
Some of these bookmarks are of the Hallmark variety, with colored tassels and wacky sayings such as “Reading is Forever!” Others come from her travels with Dad (the Moby Dickens Bookshop in Taos) or her devotional life (“Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!”). Still others are faded dry-cleaning receipts or rumpled grocery lists.
Dr. Claire Colombo has served on the seminary's adjunct faculty since 2012. As a freelance educational consultant, she develops religion curriculum for Loyola Press of Chicago and is a regular contributor to their Find God magazines and newsletters.
I had already drafted a whole ‘nother blog post. It was about radical hospitality as the making of a poem out of whatever surprising thing comes our way. (See www.typewriterrodeo.com for the general idea.)
But on Sunday morning, as I was driving to church, I stopped for a red light at an intersection. There, I saw a neighbor of mine. He’s a neighbor because he’s always at this particular intersection near my home. If you define neighbor as one who occupies a nearby residence, however, he wouldn’t qualify, because he’s homeless.
Nathan Jennings came to Seminary of the Southwest in 2005, returning to his hometown. Currently, Nathan serves as the J. Milton Richardson Associate Professor of Liturgics and Anglican Studies. Nathan's academic interests include liturgical theology, dogmatic theology, ascetical theology, and theological hermeneutics.
This year will be the third year that we, as a community, will be celebrating the “Triduum” together. In the past, we have expected students to attend their field parishes for formation in the Triduum. We decided to give it a go for a few years here at Seminary of the Southwest, to see if the Triduum might not become for us an important part of our own formative traditions.
But what is the “Triduum,” anyway? It is not a word found in our Prayer Book. It is Latin for “The Three Days.” These “Three Days” refer to the three focal days of Holy Week surrounding Christ’s Last Supper, betrayal, death, burial and resurrection. It comprises four services over three days. The four services are: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and the Great Vigil of Easter. These take place from Thursday evening before Easter Sunday through Saturday night (or, in some places the Great Vigil occurs just before sunrise on Easter Sunday itself).
Dr. Micah Jackson (@FrMicah) serves as the Bishop John Hines Associate Professor of Preaching and the Dean of Community Life at Seminary of the Southwest. Micah also serves on the faculty of the Episcopal Preaching Foundation's Preaching Excellence Program.
Those of us who are careful observers of the Church Calendar know that there are several kinds of days. There are the ordinary, or ferial, days. There are days of fasting or abstinence. And, of course, there are feast days. These days of joy stand as a reminder that even in the midst of trouble and difficulty, there are always reasons to celebrate.
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