PROFOUNDLY HOLY MOMENTS

Last Sunday we celebrated All Saints Day and, following the service, observed an "open house" to mark the near completion of phase 1 of our construction enabled by our "Called to Love" capital campaign. I was so emotionally moved by Sunday's worship. At the 8 am service, as worshippers gathered around the altar for the first time in almost two years, tears welled up in my eyes. It was so right and so beautiful and so good. At the 10 am service, as we processed into the church with the choir and began singing "For All the Saints," the tears returned. It was all so unexpected and overwhelming. It felt like a surprising and surpassingly wonderful gift. Which it was!

In Joni Mitchell's song, "Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot" (I know that I'm hopelessly dating myself with this reference), Mitchell wisely observes: "You don't know what you've got till it's gone." Reflecting on Sunday's worship and my deeply emotional response to it, I'd probably write, "you don't know what you've got till it returns!

The worship rhythms ingrained in us--processing with a cross, singing hymns together, gathering around the altar for Holy Communion--could easily be taken for granted as simply worship routines and nothing more. But when they're taken away and returned they are truly revealed for what they are: profoundly holy movements and words that open hearts to the sacred presence of our living Lord.

This coming Sunday these rhythms continue. On Sunday two more children are being baptized--it's a Covid baby boom at St. Gregory's!--and we resume our annual tradition of placing our financial pledge commitments at the altar. It's a procession to the heart of God--sacramentally symbolized by our altar--where we offer back to God in joy and gratitude what God has given to us.

I look forward to our worship. I'll not be surprised if once again I find my eyes filling with tears.

In Christ,

Andrew+