Dear friends:
Gratitude has been overflowing all week for the beauty of last weekend’s Easter celebration. The liturgical art in the sanctuary, the Saturday campus pilgrimage, the Sunday morning services, and, of course,
this announcement (if you missed it, you’ll be glad you took a minute to watch now) celebrating our commitment to new life and love in our city. It brought me tremendous joy and I trust it did you as well.
This week, we’ll turn our attention to a two-part sermon series on Resilience, as we seek to finish well our journey through this pandemic as well as so many other vicissitudes life brings our way. How do we persevere? What theological convictions, faith practices, and community resources strengthen us for the faithful journey?
Joan Chittister, who writes well on this subject, says,
We do not do it alone of course.
We are companioned through life. . . .
Underneath it all, holding us up as we change,
are the people who love us.
However much we find ourselves in the throes of life,
they stand by until we land again on solid ground,
find ourselves again, get up in the morning ready to start over.
Because of them we stay on the path.
They provide the unchanging foundations of love
that enable us to risk change.
The people who love us prod us––enable us––to grow.
And God loves us. . . . God loves me and wants me to grow.
I am trying, before I die, to learn to trust this continual
going into the unknown. I better live a long, long life.
Joan Chittister, OSB
Called to Question
This week we’ll approach the topic through this compelling story from the prophet Jeremiah. I encourage you to read it in advance of our time together.
I look forward to ‘seeing’ you this weekend in worship and trust you’ll find it helpful and hopeful.
With abundant gratitude,
