A couple of weeks ago I was preaching on Sunday and I shared a teaching on the Eucharistic Prayer that we say on Sunday, and I got so many responses to that, asking for more teaching things like that, to better understand what it is we do when we gather together like this on Sunday…

One of the exciting things about life here at St. Paul’s is the number of newcomers that we meet every Sunday. Some of you here today may be here for the first time, and we welcome you. Some people come to a parish and see it as a place where we want to engage with…

Many of you know that I’m from New York. Not that you couldn’t figure that out from my accent. I was born and raised just outside of New York City and my parents are still living there today. Growing up, I became a great fan of the New York Yankees. Many of you know that as well from past stories I’ve told…

Once I was asked by a newcomer to our parish, “Do you ever use incense?” And I said, “Yes we do; at least once a year. It’s kind of a hotdog-hamburger incense.” It’s a special kind of incense…

Have you ever had the opportunity to meet somebody through someone you already know, and you want to meet this person because they have respect for him? I recently had an experience through one of my favorite spiritual writers, Richard Rohr. You have heard me probably mention him in homilies several times. He has quoted quite a bit, someone else that I recently discovered through writing and through talks he gave, and his name is Parker Palmer…

My daughter Rebecca is fascinated with astronomy. So this past Christmas we bought her a telescope. And the telescope came with an eyepiece. So you aim the telescope up at the sky and you look through the eyepiece. And it was just incredible what we were able to see. The moon seemed so much closer and some of the stars in the sky, some of the planets, you could see a little more clearly. It was a fascinating experience; it was nearly a spiritual experience…

As we progress through this Holy Week we will continue to walk through the events that have been described in the passion reading, ultimately leading us to next Sunday with the celebration of the resurrection. What I’d like to do this morning is to share a few thoughts, not so much on the passion reading, but on the gospel reading that we read outside with the blessing of the palms, from Mark’s gospel about Palm Sunday…