“You’re not alone.” Norah Jones
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmPa26ZJsnE/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Justice is an all-embracing deal.
You gotta start somewhere.
Pastoral Times
Recently, for the first time in my experience, I’ve begun to witness scheduled liturgical events to which no one comes. No one at all.
It’s a very different experience. My entire time, from diaconal ordination in 1982, has featured a fairly steady change, in terms of decline, when it comes to church attendance, active parishioners, and much else.
Mind you, that’s certainly not been the only experience. Men and women growing in faith and deepening their spiritual life profoundly has also been present and quite real.
Still …
This time of pandemic and endemic feels different.
This evening, when no one came to the Blue Christmas service, I stayed in the church to pray. I played music over the church system. I felt sad. And alone.
But not entirely.
I also felt a godly assurance. It can be put in the way Mother Teresa used to express it: “I’m not called to be successful. I’m called to be faithful.” And she was. That faithfulness of hers transformed the landscape of many lives and deaths.
It is an assurance. Just keep on. Just do the next good thing. The next right thing. That’s the path of faithfulness, and it leads where it’s meant to lead.
A stranger’s love and its amazing results. Steve Hartman, On the Road.
December 17
O Wisdom of our God Most High,
guiding creation with power and love:
come to teach us the path of knowledge!
Stay in touch: mcginty@writeme.com
Believe it. 