Morning Meditation
February 25, 2026
EMILY MALBONE MORGAN, PROPHETIC WITNESS, 1937
Emily Malbone Morgan [Dec. 10, 1862-Feb. 27, 1937] was the founder of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross (SCHC).
She was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the youngest child and only daughter born to merchant Henry Kirke Morgan and the former Emily Malbone Brinley.
In 1883, Morgan's childhood friend, Adelyn Howard, fell ill with a hip disease, which made her a lonely invalid in a town in which she had no friends or family. The following year, Morgan, with Howard and Harriet Hastings of Wellesley, Massachusetts founded the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross, to allow the shut-in Adelyn—and other religious women who valued thanksgiving, intercessory prayer, and simplicity of life—to pray and work for social justice.
In 1889, two years after moving to New Haven, Morgan began her writing career, publishing A Little White Shadow, the proceeds of which she used to fund vacation homes for "tired women, girls and children." As such, Morgan can be considered part of the Deaconess movement in which over 5000 Protestant women participated circa 1890. In 1901, Morgan purchased what became their headquarters and retreat center, in Byfield, Massachusetts, which was named Adelynrood upon its renovation in 1915 (remembering both Howard, who had died in 1898, and an old word for "cross").
The Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross currently has approximately eight hundred members and continues to operate retreat centers.
Meditation-Rebecca Northington
Today in the Lectionary we celebrate Emily Malbone Morgan. As you can see her achievements reflect a deep empathy and compassion for those in need. Morgan saw solutions and made them possible; not for herself, but for others. These accomplishments would be moving and impressive in 2026, but for a woman at the turn of the 20th century to create such a movement is beyond inspiring.
This past President’s Day weekend, the Redeemer Youth Group (RYG) traveled to Washington D.C. thanks to the support of many of you reading this today. Fourteen teenagers, five young adults, and I offered their holiday weekend to work with, and for, our country’s most vulnerable: the sick, the impoverished and the unhoused. We met many people with severe mental health challenges and we talked about the lack of government, social or religious safety nets to help these people. The conversation often goes back to One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and the debate over when and how to institutionalize those living on the margins. There is no easy answer, that’s for sure. As a group we see this conundrum play out at St. Francis Inn many a Sunday.
As we enter our first full week of Lent, it is hard for me to separate the idea of Christ’s journey in the wilderness and the temptations that plagued him while he was starving and lonely, with so many on the street also facing temptations. In their desperation, many make decisions that thwart any opportunity to escape their living wilderness, or in many cases, their living hell. I would wager many of them witness more evil than divine. But, in very small doses, the kids got to witness the Church’s role in trying to alleviate their hunger, both spiritual and physical. Sitting down with someone who does not smell welcoming, or whose face is set in anger or distrust is profoundly intimidating. But these young people did that work last weekend. They fed countless people warm meals, and also heard their stories, shook their hands, gave them hugs in some cases, and tried their hardest to treat so many with dignity, warmth and love.
Witnessing other people’s suffering is uncomfortable. We all felt that in DC. It would be easier to pretend it doesn’t exist and to not address it. Not just for homeless people, but also for friends or relatives unhappy in marriages or families, for those suffering from crippling anxiety, or life-changing depression, or just life changing. Witnessing other people’s poverty, in every sense of the word, is uncomfortable. Jesus said, we will always have the poor; I believe he was speaking very broadly. I also believe that we will all have periods of wilderness in our lives, and the power of a stranger's love and hope for us can be life changing. We may not see the fruits of those efforts, we may only get to trust that we have planted those seeds and with God’s love all things are possible.
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