Don't let these guys fool you

These are some flowers in the front of our apartment building. I took this picture about 9 am; it was cloudy, and cool.

These were taken of the same flowers, about two hours later; they love the sun!
But like I said, don't let these guys fool you...looking at them, one might think Spring has arrived and the weather is all bumblebees, daffodils, and warm breezes. But oh, the snow flurries we had last night beg to differ! The weather is way too cold, I have a cold, and it's near impossible to enjoy the outdoors. It feels like February. I hate Spring.
Everybody says they love Spring, but they're mistaken. They love the early Summer that comes after Spring. Who enjoys dramatic ups and downs in the weather, 70 degrees one day, 30 the next? Warm sunshine on Monday, snow flurries or cold rain on Tuesday? For me, Hell would not be a hot place of raging fire and worms that never die, eating my flesh for all eternity. No, it'll be an eternal late March/early April, teasing me with warm weather, then slamming me with snow. And a cold. How long until June?

On a different and more positive note, yet still in keeping with the theme of this post's title...

I was invited to preach Wednesday night (of Holy Week, the week before Easter) at my church. We're attending a wonderful, faithful little Episcopal church in Montrose, NY, called the Church of the Divine Love.

Our priest, Fr Eric Cosentino, is a wonderful man and one of the best preachers I've ever heard. We've had services every night this week, and Eric decided to have lay preachers do their thing on Mon, Tues, and Wed. A couple of other guys in our congregation are in seminary working on getting their MDiv, so they preached the first two days, I went on Wednesday.

Here we are, in front of the altar. The Palms are from Palm Sunday.
I thoroughly expected to wear a suit and tie, but Eric asked me to wear my cassock (the black garment underneath), a surplice (the white robe on top) and a master's hood, since I have a master's degree already. You can only see the front part of the hood under my neck in this picture; the rest hangs down the length of my back. Eric is wearing red, the appropriate liturgical color for Holy Week, and the Passion of Christ.

I hadn't preached in a couple years and it was nice to be active again, despite having an annoying cold. And it was fun to get dressed up.

Thanks for reading!