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On the Way   The Rt. Rev. Audrey Scanlan
Good Friday

Have you ever heard a tree cry- or moan?  I spent a couple of hours hiking on the Appalachian Trail near our home today and the entire time I was out there, the trees were moaning. It is Good Friday. I woke after a strange sleep.   I had stayed up late (for me), checking at […]

Maundy Thursday

You know what’s really uncomfortable?   Watching yourself on video for upwards of an hour. I’ve been committed to watching/participating in all of the offerings that our ad hoc liturgy group in the diocese put together for Holy Week, seeing what kind of experience it would offer for personal reflection and devotion, and then writing to […]

alone

Well, I’m not really alone. I spent five more hours on Zoom today. I have listened all day to the soft creaking of the floorboards over my head as my husband moves back and forth in front of his stand -up desk in his office, just above the kitchen where I have set up camp. […]

filling the pockets of your soul

TUESDAY in HOLY WEEK Five hours of Zoom today. It was all good. All important. All holy, even. The first two of them I took in my running clothes with my hair standing on end, yet unshowered. So it goes. In some ways, this Holy Week has afforded me more time for reflection each day […]

A soft day with a rough patch. The Good Shepherd was waiting on the other side.

I have friends who live in Ireland, and when they say that it’s been a “soft day,” they mean that it’s been a wee bit wet- somewhere between a mist and a drizzle. It was sunny and beautiful today in Central Pennsylvania- but I’d still call it a “soft day.” Holy Monday is like that. […]

A new way

No, it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t the same at all. A lifetime of shouting “Hosanna!” “Blessed is the One who comes in the Name of the Lord!” “Hosanna to the Son of David!”, and, later (and less enthusiastically) “Crucify him, Crucify him!”… no, I didn’t do that today. I didn’t sprinkle holy water over […]

When the Real Presence… isn’t Present

At the time that this blog entry will post (Friday, April 3, 2020) most of the Episcopalians in Central Pennsylvania will have gone without Holy Communion for two weeks.  For some, it may have been longer (some having missed church for a week or more leading up to the suspension of worship that began on March […]

my amygdala

(for Nagulan) ONE. I was 21 when Panic arrived on my doorstep with an overnight bag packed for a stay of some duration. Panic came unexpectedly.  I had just finished four wonderful years at a small liberal arts women’s college where I was a leader, where I had good friends, healthy hobbies, and felt, like many […]

prayer

Let my prayer be set forth in your sight as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the (evening) sacrifice.                                                 Psalm 141:2 NRSV Every morning I stumble downstairs in the dark; turn the thermostat up from its nighttime, sensible and thrifty low; hit “brew” on the coffee machine; spoon two tablespoons of pasty, smelly, […]

change

Most blog posts around this time of year focus on New Year’s resolutions.  I could follow suit and tell you about how I’m going to lose 20 pounds, or how I’ve decided to never again buy a plastic bottle of water no matter how thirsty I am, or how I am committed to a new regimen […]

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