A Preview of Lent

Lent-- the penitential season of preparation for Jesus' death and resurrection-- begins in just a few weeks. It is the perfect time to take on some structured reading and prayer, and there are many resources available in the Bookshop to help shape such a discipline.

One new book for Lent this year is God For Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Lent and Easter. The daily meditations contributions from Lauren Winner, James Schaap, Kathleen Norris, and others are complemented by reproductions of famous art.

Watch as two of the contributors, James Schaap and Luci Shaw, speak a little on their understanding of this church season:

Tonight at St. Stephen's: Christian Wiman

This evening we are pleased to welcome poet and author Christian Wiman, speaking at 7 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall.

Although a young man, Wiman is credited with the growth and development of Poetry magazine during his time as editor. After growing up in a Southern, Christian home, Wiman had sworn off Christianity until the time of his diagnosis with a particularly deadly cancer. His book, My Bright Abyss, chronicles his powerful return to faith during his time of struggle with the disease. It is both deeply personal and theological, and has received positive reviews in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and other media.

Copies of My Bright Abyss and Wiman's book of poetry, Every Riven Thing, are available in the Bookshop @ St. Stephen's.

Shelf Spotlight: Books for Children

Did you know that the Bookshop @ St. Stephen's carries a wide variety of books for children and youth? From picture books to Bibles, devotionals to prayer books, everything we offer is intended to enhance family spirituality.

Here are just a few of our newest offerings:







From Prayers for Each and Every Day--

God's own peace to the mountain,

God's own peace to the plain:

God's own Paradise garden

Grow in the world again.

-- Lois Rock

A Poem for Christmas

On behalf of the staff and clergy of St. Stephen's, we wish you and your family a peaceful Christmas and joyous new year.

Please join us today and tomorrow as we celebrate together:

Christmas Eve
4:00 p.m.: Holy Eucharist, Rite Two*
6:30 p.m: Musical Prelude*
7:00 p.m.: Celtic Christmas Service*
10:30 p.m.:Handel's Messiah with choir and orchestra
11:00 p.m.: Holy Eucharist, Rite One

Christmas Day
10:30 a.m.: Holy Eucharist, Rite Two; music by "Sanctuary"

*child care available

_______________

 

Hoawrd Thurman is a perpetual favorite in the Bookshop-- a theologian, civil rights leader and mentor of Martin Luther King, Jr, his writing is measured and thoughtful and always spot-on.

We love this poetic reminder of the ever constant, always holy work of Christmas, and hope you will, too.

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.

A Poem for Thanksgiving

One of our favorite poets here at St. Stephen's is Wendell Berry. A noted environmentalist, author, and farmer, he is also known for undertaking the spiritual discipline of writing poems inspired by Sunday walks around his Kentucky farm.

A  new collection of these poems has just been published:



 Both this and many other titles by Wendell Berry are available in The Bookshop @ St. Stephen's.

On the eve of this Thanksgiving, we'd like to share a poem from the above collection-- Sabbath Poem XI, from 2003.

It is late November, Thanksgiving,
and the slow rain falls all day
as it has fallen. The mists drift
in the treetops along Camp Branch.
The ewe flock grazes the green slope
as in a dream of a painting
by Samuel Palmer. There is no wind.
It is completely quiet. From the distance
comes only the sound of the branch
flowing in its wooded hollow, old,
old, and new, unidentifying the day
and the man giving his thanks.

Anne Lamott at Prayer: Wow

"When we are stunned to the place byond words, we're finally starting to get somewhere. It is so much more comfortable to think that we know what it all means, what to expect and how it all hangs together. When we are stunned to the place beyond words, when as aspect of life takes us away from being able to chip away at something until it's down to a manageable size and then to file it away nicely, when all we can say in response is "Wow," that's a prayer."

-- from Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott at Prayer: Thanks

"We and life are spectacularly flawed and complex. Often we do not get our way, which I hate, hate, hate. But in my saner moments I remember that if we did, usually we would shortchage ourselves. Sometimes circumstances conspire to remind us or even let us glimpse how thin the membrane is between here and there, between birth and the grave, between the human and the divine. In wonder at the occasional direct experience of this, we say, Thank you."

--From Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott

Overflow seating for Anne's October 17th visit to St. Stephen's is still available! Click here for more information.