For the feast of Michaelmas

 Revelation 12:7-8

Michael Defeats the Dragon

And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.

On the feast of Michaelmas

celebrating angels

and dragons

and all things

mythical

and mystical

For what is faith

if not filled

with the fickleness

of humankind 

while angels gather

in the dying light

infusing the world

with love

and laughter

and song

and grace 

and nudging us

to get on board

the angel train

wreaking havoc

one radical act of love

at a time.

Holy Cross Day

 

Matthew 27:55-56

Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

The creaking of wood

The flapping of cloth in the breeze

And a deathly silence

hung like a pall

Spectacle over,

the crowd dispersed

Except for the women

who waited

They had accompanied him all the way

and would not abandon him now

They stayed with the pain

and the brutality

with the grief

and the barbarity

They refused to look away

They stayed

and glimpsed evil

overcome by love

in the cross of Christ.

They stayed

and bore witness

to the promise 

of Resurrection 

It takes a woman

 

Mark 7:27-30

He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Sometimes

It takes a woman

It takes a woman

to cut through the BS

of inheritance

and tradition

of entitlement

and assumption

It takes a woman

to speak truth to power

to say it like it is

It takes a woman

to call out

the dangerous naivety 

of blindly following

the notions of the past

It takes a woman

to expand our horizons

and lead us boldly

into a courageous future

defined by compassion

that offers more

than crumbs from the table

of the privileged 

to the forgotten

and overlooked

and undermined

and those deemed less than

in every age

It takes a woman.