Rev Susan Hill – Church of Holy Apostles

Litany in the Wake of a Mass Shooting | The Rev. Susan E. Hill, Associate Rector

The comedian John Oliver addressed the recent mass shootings before his regular show aired Sunday night. He began like this: “When it comes to gun control, I know it can feel like everything’s been said before. In fact, even pointing out “everything’s been said before” has been said before. In fact, even pointing out the fact that “ ‘everything’s been said before’ has been said before” has been said before. But while the depressingly familiar numbness that you may be currently feeling can help you handle the pain in the short term, in the long term it can actually be a real problem because unless something hurts as much as it’s supposed to, nothing gets done about it.”....

Litany in the Wake of a Mass Shooting | The Rev. Susan E. Hill, Associate RectorRev Susan Hill2019-08-07T18:11:35+00:00

The Spiritual Side of Vacation | The Rev. Susan E. Hill, Associate Rector

Happy Summer! I am actually on vacation -- I wrote this meditation last week before I left. I hope I'm having a fun and relaxing time! And I hope that you will get some time off as well this summer, even if it is just a long weekend or two....

The Spiritual Side of Vacation | The Rev. Susan E. Hill, Associate RectorRev Susan Hill2019-07-26T15:12:03+00:00

Blessings of Ordinary Time | The Rev. Susan E. Hill, Associate Rector

Starting this past Monday, the Church entered its longest season of the liturgical year -- often called Ordinary time. Technically speaking, it isn’t actually a season, but rather the time between the major seasons of the church calendar. The longest stretch of Ordinary time reaches from the Monday after the Feast of Pentecost (June 10 this year) all the way until the Saturday before the first Sunday of Advent....

Blessings of Ordinary Time | The Rev. Susan E. Hill, Associate RectorRev Susan Hill2019-06-14T16:10:43+00:00

Reclaiming Sacred Words | The Rev. Susan E. Hill, Associate Rector

As I write today I am at the annual Priests’ Conference of the Diocese. Most of the priests of the Diocese of New York have gathered together with our bishops for three days of fellowship, education, and relaxation. This year we are in the Poconos and it is beautiful, if a bit on the rainy side!We have had a guest speaker named Jonathan Merritt. You might remember an opinion piece he wrote last year for the Sunday Week in Review section of the New York Times titled “It’s Getting Harder to Talk About God,” and his most recent book is called “Learning to Speak God from Scratch.”...

Reclaiming Sacred Words | The Rev. Susan E. Hill, Associate RectorRev Susan Hill2019-05-16T19:37:48+00:00

Holy Silence | The Rev. Susan E. Hill, Associate Rector

As you receive this meditation, we will have just concluded our Good Friday liturgy. In our Book of Common Prayer, the three services at the end of Holy Week -- Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Great Vigil of Easter on Saturday night - are conceived as one long worship service over three days. That means that from the Good Friday liturgy, which ends appropriately in silence, to the beginning of the Vigil with the kindling of the new fire in the dark, there is a long stretch of more than a day when we are still technically within a worship service....

Holy Silence | The Rev. Susan E. Hill, Associate RectorRev Susan Hill2019-04-17T23:59:31+00:00

The Holy Spirit Flocks Around Us | The Rev. Susan E. Hill

As many of you know, I was in Phoenix last weekend attending my friend Jennifer Reddall’s consecration as Bishop of Arizona, and it was truly a blessed event. It was blessed not just because Bishop Reddall is now the first female bishop of Arizona. Or because she is currently one of only ten women who are the primary bishop of one of our 111 dioceses in the Episcopal church. Or because the ceremony included an amazing ritual to create sacred space led by Native American women, one of whom is also an Episcopal priest. Or because the music was a delightful combination of beloved Anglican and Spanish-language hymns (helped by an 80-member choir and a mariachi band, of course). Or because the celebratory performance by former “lost boys” from Sudan who have found an Episcopal church to call home in their new land. Or the vibrant presence of our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. It was blessed because of the palpable presence of the Holy Spirit. For a sermon in her days as rector of Church of the Epiphany here in New York, +Jennifer once did some research on doves as an image of the Holy Spirit.....

The Holy Spirit Flocks Around Us | The Rev. Susan E. HillRev Susan Hill2019-03-20T23:16:34+00:00

The Conversion of the Saint Paul the Apostle

Today, Friday, January 25, is the day we remember the conversion of Paul. The story of Paul being suddenly struck from his horse by a blinding light while on the road to Damascus is immediately familiar to us, from the several bible passages that describe it (Acts 9:1-22, 22:6-21, and 26:9-21; Galatians 1:11-24). Even if you don’t remember anything else about the story, you are likely to be able to visualize one of the many paintings of Paul’s experience on the road - one of the most famous is by Caravaggio (click here to view).

The Conversion of the Saint Paul the ApostleRev Susan Hill2019-01-24T17:37:25+00:00

Blessing for a New Beginning

The Reverend Susan E. HillMerry Christmas!This is a season of new beginnings. We are in Christmastide (remember we celebrate the birth of

Blessing for a New BeginningRev Susan Hill2019-01-10T21:10:46+00:00

The Power of Prayer

As you know from the email we sent recently, this week’s parish prayer list has been revised. Our goal is to simplify the previous format, as well as to make the list easier to maintain. All this rests on one big hope: that you don’t simply see the email in your inbox and click delete. Or look at it briefly to see if anyone you know is on the list. Or maybe even just read the meditation, and then delete the list! The hope that we have instead is that you spend time with the list and say a prayer for the people and issues on it....

The Power of PrayerRev Susan Hill2018-11-30T17:05:41+00:00

St Jude, Hope of the Hopeless, pray for us!

This past Monday, October 29, was the feast day of St. Simon and St. Jude, who were named as apostles in the gospels. We don’t know much more about them than that, at least from the scriptures. Tradition has it that they were martyred while missionaries together in Persia. There are various theories about them -- for example that Simon had been part of a radical Jewish independence group called the Zealots, and that Jude might have been one of Jesus’ brothers -- but little is known for sure....

St Jude, Hope of the Hopeless, pray for us!Rev Susan Hill2018-11-01T20:42:54+00:00

About Rev Susan Hill