Image via Wikipedia The Tour de France is my favorite sporting event of the year. What a great start for the tour this weekend. Got that fever once again. This year, Levi's my man. Continue reading

Enjoyed my first ride on my road bike to and through Mendon Ponds. Someone told me this is one of the best places in America for cycling. After a glorious Sunday ride, I am a believer. Continue reading

Image by Getty Images via @daylife Several have asked about how our identity as Christians might inform our reaction to the death of Bin Laden. A friend reminded me of Proverbs 24:17: “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when... Continue reading

I love how Rowan handled this pastoral response to a young girl.... Continue reading

This morning, as we prepared for the early service, Rob and I were blessed by the light aligning perfectly with the windows at the Winton Road narthex, enabling us to stand literally in the shadow of the Cross. I confess I almost shouted the A-word. Continue reading

As we forgive those who trespass against us.... My beloved sisters and brothers in Christ, We say the Lord's Prayer every day, but do we really mean what we say? Lent is a time during which we call upon God to examine us and make plain the hardness in our... Continue reading

Delighted to notice during my coffee walk around the yard the tips of the 300 narcissi and other bulbs I planted last spring bursting through the crusty still cold soil. Plum and pear buds pregnantly pressing sunward in their eagerness to praise God with their color. Spring's symphony is just a few weeks away. Continue reading

At the emergency vet with Macavity. Her eye appears ulcerated and she's in great pain. Twelve years of bonding makes this tough to witness. Funny how you can love a cat. Continue reading

Still savoring a glorious kickoff to our new Focus on Faith ministry. 35 folks participated in our weekend retreat, many more than we imagined in our wildest dreams. I am especially excited by the long list of Inquirers we will be enrolling next Sunday. How blessed we are! Continue reading

A man never stands so tall as when he stoops to help a child. - read on a poster at the Mary Cariola Children's Center in Rochester, NY Continue reading

...to find the best in others, to give of one's self, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived—this is to have succeeded. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson Continue reading

Delighted to be hosting Jo Bailey Wells at our home thus evening and next. Jo's in town to give a talk on ministry of the baptized and to preach as my parish is gathered by the bishop to celebrate our renewal of ministry. Continue reading

If we had had good kings, we all would still be monarchists. -- Lincoln Steffens Continue reading

America is an inherently "disharmonic society" because the ideals of its creed are always imperfectly realized and always endangered. via www.washingtonpost.com Continue reading

Annual meeting 2011 now in the rearview mirror. Enjoyed my first at St. T's. Looking forward to hosting Jo Bailey Wells next weekend. Time now for a glass of Cab and Da Bears and Packers. Life is good! Continue reading

Last week, the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, Timothy Murray, noticed smoke coming out of a minivan in his hometown of Worcester. He raced over and pulled out two small children, moments before the van's tire exploded into flames. At which point, according to the AP account, the kids' grandmother, who had been driving, nearly punched our hero in the face. via online.wsj.com Continue reading

When I think of institutions with which I struggle most to receive as a blessing, near the top of my list would be the cable company and the DMV. Interaction with either is sure to be a temptation for me, inviting me to forget words like charity and humility as I lapse into reactive patterns of my past peacock years in which I responded to inefficiency and bureaucracy with behaviors that have now become sermon illustrations. With that in mind, I was astonished at how effortless it was for me today at the NY DMV. I was in and out... Continue reading

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing while others judge us by what we have already done. -- Longfellow Continue reading

Every sensible person involved in politics and public life knows that their work is laced with failure. Every column, every speech, every piece of legislation and every executive decision has its own humiliating shortcomings. There are always arguments you should have made better, implications you should have anticipated, other points of view you should have taken on board. Moreover, even if you are at your best, your efforts will still be laced with failure. The truth is fragmentary and it’s impossible to capture all of it. There are competing goods that can never be fully reconciled. The world is more... Continue reading

Persons who are good in the ordinary way can reliably perceive what is rude, contemptible, pitiful, dangerous, threatening, lovable, dishonest, trustworthy, and so on. But it takes an exceptional person to see not only the pitifulness but also the lovableness of the same person at the same time. Or to see not only the dishonesty but also the pitifulness, or to see the fact that someone is both dishonest and trustworthy at the same time, but in different ways. [Such a person] takes in the entire situation in all its morally relevant respects and responds to that. - Linda Zabzeski,... Continue reading

The bride and I took in Black Swan this evening. We were excited to see it because we are a ballet family. Thought we'd check it out and later on tell our young ballerina daughter when to close her eyes to avoid the scary parts. We saw the preview and read a few articles, so we nodded knowingly when an acquaintance told us it was 'dark.' No problem, we thought. We can do film noire. Turns out Black Swan isn't dark because of its art. It's dark because of its filth. Wish we read this LA Times review before investing... Continue reading

Who you are speaks so loudly I can't hear what you say. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson Continue reading

Enjoyed another of our delightful coffee and dessert gatherings last night. What a wonderful parish we have. Got home in time to catch the second half of the Cotton Bowl. Didn't have to yell at the TV, which is unusual when purple and gold courses through your veins. The Tigers look like they could be really good next fall given all those freshmen on display last night. Continue reading

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, With both joy for her and sadness for our parish family, we announce the retirement of Dulcie Mackey effective February 28, 2011. Dulcie has been a member of St. Thomas’ for more than thirty years and has served as our Church School Coordinator since... Continue reading