Good Zeal

Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen,When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even;Brightly shone the moon that night, tho’ the frost was cruel,When a poor man came in sight, gath’ring winter fuel.Today, on the Feast of Stephen, is a good day to take…

If there is one non-liturgical item that is absolutely indispensible for a Christmas celebration at the monastery, it would have to be the lowly apron. This humble garment is like the tie that binds one activity to the next as we move through the celebration of Christmas Day here at…

We never hear about the innkeeper, the nameless one who on a dark, desert night, long, long ago said ‘no’ to two weary travelers – one with his face creased with the worry and dust of travel, the other clearly pregnant. Perhaps he was too tired, or too busy, to…

Today, on “Black Friday,” the biggest shopping day of the year, our scripture reading at Vespers happened to come from the third chapter of Ecclesiastes. This being my week to read, I was the one to get up and speak the familiar lines: “For everything there is a season, and…

We’ve been busy these past few weeks adjusting to the various sights, sounds, and disruptions of living in a construction zone. Despite our high spirits and excitement over the launching of the renovation project, all adjustments carry at least a little bit of stress, and recently the time grew ripe…

This morning, after a very quiet weekend, the throttles were humming again in the heavy equipment that surrounds (and inhabits!) the monastery. The engines revved up right after Lauds. It was as if our concluding verse – “Thanks be to God” – was followed immediately by “Gentlemen, start your engines.”…

The rhythm of renovation has been filling the air with an insistent, unrelenting, percussive intensity that somehow becomes strangely soothing after a while. When the noise suddenly stopped one day this week, two of us looked at each other with the same thought: “What’s wrong?” Nothing was wrong, except the…

Praise the Lord all ye kabooms,praise Him all ye thundering thuds!Praise the Lord all ye trembling floors,Praise Him all pipes and pillars!Praise the Lord from the heights of cranes,give praise with the sound of saw and drill.Praise the Lord with the dance of boots,with steel-toe and hard hat, praise Him!Praise…

On Friday, as workmen stretched orange fencing around Ottilia Hall, it appeared as if they were applying a giant bandage to a red brick heart. And while the building isn’t actually ‘injured,’ it is in need of interior restoration – ‘healing,’ if you will – from the fatigue of over…

Yesterday, I had a few spare hours between giving a morning Adult Ed program at a Birmingham parish and then attending an afternoon event at another parish in Birmingham. The rare, unscheduled block of time allowed for a trip to the Birmingham Museum of Art where I spent a couple…