From the Sermon on the Mount, the fulfillment standard is not simply a more rigorous avoidance of the bad or disagreeable, but a more devoted pursuit of the Good, the righteous…
Today, the Trinity Choir offers us Maurice Durufle’s incomparable Requiem mass. “Requiem” is the Latin word for “rest.” It recalls the opening words of the ancient liturgy for the dead: Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine. “Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.” First sung on All Souls Day in 1947, Duruflé’s setting is regarded as not only his greatest work, but one of the greatest sacred choral works of the 20th century. In this masterpiece, Duruflé combines ancient Gregorian chants with rich harmonies of modern French music to create a musical language capable of transporting us.
It’s a miracle that any of us have found our way here. Consider the impossible many circumstances, chances, choices that brought you to Trinity Church this morning … all of us are miracles come To These Stones …
We are all hungry in this world, how do we respond to the invitations we receive? Where do we respond with love, when do we fall short? God invites us to join in the heavenly banquet right here on earth, inviting each of us to live in relationship and hope. How will you respond?
We have been invited to join the work of God, whose promises are good, and true, and unabashedly full of love.
Late in her career O’Connor reflected that she was an author ‘with certain preoccupations,’ namely ‘that belief in Christ is … a matter of life and death.’ That conviction, she observed, ‘[has] been a stumbling block for readers who would prefer to think it a matter of no great consequence’…
Both the prophetic context of our theme and its echo later in the Gospel call us Trinitarians to become – ourselves! – a living prophecy: From These Stones we live as an embodied witness to God’s hopes, past and future …
When the world feels like it is falling apart, where do you see hope? Where do you see the fractures coming together? Today’s gospel reminds us that God is always seeking to restore humanity through presence, love, and compassion. Where are you seeing that love today?
If I’m honest, more than once I have prayed: “Lord, please lead me, but please don’t lead me there.” And when we follow Jesus with conditions, when we set the terms of our discipleship, our prayer becomes an echo of Peter’s rebuke. Before we know it, we’re no longer followers, but stumbling blocks.
