On Thursday evening, April 4, 1968, at approximately 7:30 PM, I was one of two white folks at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Washington, DC headquarters on the corner of 14 th & U Streets NW. Built in 1907 for the Fourteenth Street Savings Bank – “THE ONLY NIGHT BANK IN WASHINGTON” – there…
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This was our First Reading at this year’s Easter Vigil Service – another take on creation! A New Origin Story by Jean Houston From what Cosmic garden of Eden did you emerge? And toward what destiny are you pointed? Perhaps now, as the ground of the known shifts beneath our feet, what we need in…
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“We Wait on Fire”© by Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com We are waiting on fire. We Christians have two days before the Easter Vigil to get ready for the fire next time. Of course, the joke is on us because the fire has already come. We, frail and faulty as we…
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“Love in a Letter”© by Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com My father was a letter-writer, a skill honed during his six years away from home from 1932-38. This was the time he spent as a member of the Redemptorist Order of priests and brothers – his life as a Frater (Latin for brother). In…
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“What’s Holy Week without a little Irony and Ambiguity?”© by Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com To commemorate the events of Holy Week two things are helpful – even required. The first is a sense for irony and the second is an appreciation for ambiguity. How else are we to share the conviction that apparent weakness is…
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Owls at 4. Geese at 6. © Thoughts on 3rd Sunday in Lent, March 4, 2018 by Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com There is a time of year that the dog, the cat, and I walk out to the fields around the big shed. We stand at the top of the hill overlooking the woods and…
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A 30 Years Journey Begins with, “You’re Dead Wrong, Ron!”© by Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com Community blog: https://maryofmagdala-mke.org/blog At the end of May in 2015 the people of Ireland voted for marriage equality, thereby making love and not legal barriers the hallmark of the contemporary Irish way of life. The event coincided in that year’s…
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Ash Wednesday – the Little Things and Mystery © by Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com I delivered this homily at this year’s annual Ash Wednesday Service celebrated together by the faith communities of Wauwatosa Area United Methodist Church and Mary of Magdala, Apostle to the Apostles Community. George was my best friend growing up. He…
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Who knows where we are going? Thoughts on 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 11, 2018 by Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com Today’s passage from the Gospel of Mark gains in meaning when placed alongside the same story of the healed leper in the other two synoptic gospels – Luke and Matthew. The spare, yet complete,…
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Who are we? Thoughts on 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 4, 2018 by Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com “Who are we?” is the third in a series of questions we have been considering over the past three Sundays. We began first with “Who are You?” with consideration of Moses’ conversation with YHWH on Mount Horeb. …
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