CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL An Episcopal Community in the Heart of Houston, Texas
MARCH/APRIL 2025 CHRISTCHURCHCATHEDRAL.ORG
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The Dean’s Corner I firmly believe that a healthy spiritual life is lived seasonally. This is something you will hear me say and discuss frequently during my tenure. Living seasonally is something that has become de rigueur in the restaurant world. The farm to table movement of the last few decades has lifted up the virtues of eating what the local landscape produces in its due season. This is meant to promote a healthy relationship between human beings and our surrounding THE VERY environment. It also REV. NATHANIEL KATZ is meant to promote a healthy relationship with our own bodies and what they need. Lastly, eating this way stimulates creativity in figuring out how to prepare food that is delicious within the limitations of what ingredients are abundant in a particular season. All of this runs parallel to how we approach our spiritual lives. Our liturgical year is broken down into seasons that honor different “landscapes” or ways of being in the world. We have penitential seasons in Advent and Lent that are more barren in nature. In these seasons, we are given images of the desert and darkness that shape our inner life. These are followed by festive seasons in Christmas and Easter that focus on radiant light and verdant pastures. Tending to our spiritual lives this way helps us to prepare our hearts for sacred encounters. Living seasonally helps us to grow in our ability to recognize God’s presence in our midst. Throughout scripture, we find stories of human beings interacting with God through strange visitors (Abraham and Sarah) in nature (Moses and the burning bush) and fellow travelers (Jesus on the Road to Emmaus). These stories teach us that God reaches
THE DEAN’S CORNER, page 2
Sacred Encounters Scripture is filled with stories of women and men encountering God in dramatic ways: through angelic messengers, in mountaintop experiences, and in flashes of blinding light. These encounters changed the story of many Biblical figures, and they set in motion some of the greatest events in salvation history. But more often than not — in Scripture and in our lives — God meets us in smaller, more ordinary ways like in the still small voice spoken
to a prophet, in three unexpected visitors to a nomad and his wife, or in the cry of a little baby born to a young woman. The Cathedral will spend this Lent looking at this more demure version of divine revelation, reflecting on how God encounters us in the ordinary places, people, and experiences of our lives and the practices that help us recognize God when he does.
LENTEN SERIES, page 4
Tea and Lent with author Glenys Nellist KARIANN LESSNER, MINISTER FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
Sitting in my kitchen, sipping a cup of Yorkshire Gold tea (we both love a good cup-a, though she prefers Tetley), I caught up with my good friend, Glenys Nellist. Her newest book, God's Perfect Peace, was released February 11. As we talked about great places to visit in England (as she was born and raised near the Scottish border) and favorite new kids' books, I realized it was exactly four years ago that I interviewed her on my podcast (You Brew You) for her then-upcoming book Twas the Morning of Easter. I am as enchanted today as ever by her beautiful, bonny voice and sweet phrases. Glenys is the author of over thirty children's books. We plan to explore two of her books with children and their families here at Christ Church Cathedral this Lent — Twas the Season of Lent and Twas the Morning of Easter.
KA: What led you to write about the season of Lent? GN: "I wanted to write about Lent and give families a tool to help kids understand Lent and have it more at the forefront of their minds because there's not much for families. For adults, you always see Lenten devotionals, downloadable books, and options... as if kids can't celebrate Lent, and I don't agree. If we are raising liturgical children who are being raised in the church and know about liturgical seasons, they are perfectly capable of participating in the same ways adults do. I wanted
AUTHOR, page 5