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For Postulants and Aspirants in Local Formation

  Psalm 84 gives us a vocabulary for faith that is often neglected in theological training: desire . Not duty. Not mastery. Not even conviction. Desire. “My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.” The psalmist does not separate interior faith from bodily life. Heart and flesh move together. Longing is not an embarrassment to be disciplined away; it is the very engine of pilgrimage. Faith here begins not with certainty but with ache—with a pull toward the presence of God that the psalmist knows is life-giving. That matters for seminarians, who are often trained to inhabit ideas about God more fluently than spaces where God is encountered. Psalm 84 refuses such disembodiment. God is not approached only through thought but through movement, practice, and shared ritual. The psalm imagines faith as a journey taken with others toward a real place, shaped by real rhythms—walking, resting, praying, singing. Even the ...
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Service for New Year's Eve

Service for New Year's Eve   This liturgy, drawn from The Book of Occasional Services, invites us into a sacred pause between the closing of one year and the opening of the next.   This service is structured as a vigil — a watchful, prayerful time to reflect on the past, seek renewal, and consecrate the year to come. Through Scripture, song, silence, and prayer, we seek God’s presence and guidance.   All are welcome. We hope this time deepens your trust in the One who is Alpha and Omega — the beginning and the end.   ***** A Walk Through the Liturgy   Service of Light The service begins in a darkened church with the Service of Light (from An Order for Worship in the Evening, BCP p. 109). We light candles, symbolizing Christ as the Light in the darkness of time and history. We sing the ancient hymn Phos Hilaron (“O Gracious Light”).   Readings and Psalms A series of readings — drawn from Scripture — reflect on the themes of time, seasons, God’s providence, a...
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Christmas 2 Year A - Notes on Readings

Christmas 2 Year A   Jeremiah 31:7–14   1. Historical Context   This passage belongs to the so-called Book of Consolation (Jeremiah 30–33), widely understood as a collection of hope-filled oracles addressed to Judah and Israel in the aftermath—or anticipated end—of exile. Whether composed during the Babylonian exile or shaped shortly thereafter, the text responds to communal trauma: displacement, loss of land, temple, and political autonomy. Against Jeremiah’s earlier oracles of judgment, these chapters articulate a theological conviction that exile is not the final word. Restoration is imagined not as human achievement but as divine initiative.   2. Literary Form and Structure   The passage is a poetic proclamation combining exhortation (“Sing aloud”), divine promise (“I am going to bring them”), and doxological vision (“They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion”). It moves from summons to praise, through images of return, to a culminating portrait o...
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