Grace Pritchard Burson

Becoming people of the Psalms

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All Saints by the Lake, Dorval Epiphany V, Year A February 8, 2026 Incipit of Psalm 1, from the 10th-century Anglo-Saxon Ramsey Psalter We should probably talk more about the Psalms. The director of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, which was providing the scholarship that paid my seminary tuition, was a medieval musicologist who was obsessed with the Psalms…. View Post

Preparing for the blessing

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All Saints by the Lake, Dorval Epiphany IV, Year A February, 2026 Candle for the Wave of Light for miscarriage, stillbirth and infant loss, 2016. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. The Beatitudes – this list of blessings – is like the Lord’s Prayer, in that it’s so familiar that we can miss how radical it… View Post

Listening for God’s call, together

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All Saints by the Lake, Dorval Epiphany II, Year A January 18, 2026 My ordination to the priesthood, Grace Episcopal Church, Manchester, New Hampshire, January 17, 2009. Last week, we heard Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw… View Post

Doing something right, doing something new

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All Saints by the Lake, Dorval Baptism of the Lord, Year A January 11, 2026 The feltboard on Friday This is one of those rare weeks when I tell the same story at Messy Church that I then preach on Sunday. On Friday evening, I used the felt board to tell the story of Jesus’ baptism. The script gives these… View Post

The rest of the story

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All Saints by the Lake, Dorval Christmas II, Year A January 4, 2026   Master of Hoogstraeten, scenes of the infancy of Christ from an altarpiece, c. 1500. Wikimedia Commons. It’s the second Sunday after Christmas, the eleventh day of Christmas. There aren’t always two Sundays in the Christmas season, of course; it’s only twelve days long. And the Canadian… View Post