Living Church, Dead Church, Pagan Temple, Sewer

Several years ago, my family and I traveled to Rome.  While we were there, we visited the Forum, the Colosseum, and the Trevi Fountain, but my favorite and most common stops (much to my family’s chagrin) were churches.  For a priest and ecclesio-phile like me, Rome is the mother lode.  There are more churches there than Starbucks in Houston.  We visited the Vatican, the Pantheon, Santa Maria Maggiore…but of all the churches we saw, my favorite was the Basilica of San Clemente.

“Like Sparks Through the Stubble”: A Vision of All the Saints

Good morning, Saints of Christ Church Cathedral!  That’s what you are.  If we were living in the first century, and St. Paul were to write us a letter, Paul would address it “to the saints of downtown Houston.”  This recognition is an important corrective to the popular notion of saints, which says that saints are only those who perform miracles or have stigmata on their hands.  Not so.  In the days of the apostles, “saint” was synonymous with “Christian.”  To be a follower of Jesus was to be a saint.  Well, it is All Saints Sunday, and I say to you good morning, Saints of Christ Church Cathedral!