Dear Friends,
Grace and peace to you. As we come to the end of the Charge Conference season, I give thanks for the gifts of the steady, strong, creative spirits you exhibit. You have hard days, and difficult seasons, and yet you are persevering! Thanks be to God for each of you and the gifts you bring to your congregations and communities! I have enjoyed worshipping with you online during our CC meetings and I hope to be out in Harbor with you soon. Please let me know if you have events coming up where I may join you to get to know your congregations.
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“Let saints on earth unite to sing with those to glory gone” (Charles Wesley, hymn #709, UM Hymnal)
I will miss being part of a congregation this year on All Saints’ Sunday. It is one of my favorite Sundays of the year. Lighting candles and speaking names of those who have joined all the company of heaven is such a powerful and spirit-filled time. In addition, I find most people are reflective on this day, responding to the memories of those we celebrate and lift up as well as listening more closely to how saints are identified, who saints are.
I have looked forward to this day for years since I became a pastor. I recently read that John Wesley liked this day too. He reminds us that the church is the whole body, past and present; of course, he warns us of holding saints in too high regard as well. I feel that way too; saints are amazingly wonderful, ordinary people, thanks be to God.
These descriptions all speak to me about comprehending sainthood in the here and now:
- “For centuries the church has confronted the human community with role models of greatness. We call them saints when what we really often mean to say is ‘icon,’ ‘star,’ ‘hero,’ ones so possessed by an internal vision of divine goodness that they give us a glimpse of the face of God in the center of the human. They give us a taste of the possibilities of greatness in ourselves.”
— Joan D. Chittister in A Passion for Life - “I am reminded of the biblical use of the term saint in the book of Acts. That it applies to each of us. All who are attempting to imitate the Christ in their lives merit the title of ‘saint.’ Some do it more fully than others and are willing to let go of more to get the job done.”
— Matthew Fox in Confessions - “All of the places of our lives are sanctuaries; some of them just happen to have steeples. And all of the people in our lives are saints; it is just that some of them have day jobs and most will never have feast days named for them.”
— Robert Benson in Between the Dreaming and the Coming True - “Keep in mind that our community is not composed of those who are already saints, but of those who are trying to become saints. Therefore let us be extremely patient with each other’s faults and failures.”
— Mother Teresa quoted in Mother Teresa: No Greater Love edited by Becky Benenate and Joseph Durepos
We all have saints among us, near us, and saints are within us; we try to become saints as we seek to live like Christ. This is hard for so many of us to hear and believe. Saints are so elevated in our minds and in the world. And yet, it brings great joy to me to be reminded that each saint, while living, was doing what she or he could, one day and one step at a time. Even though we often feel inadequate and not equipped for, well, LIFE — it is good to know a one step at a time approach is acceptable. Thanks be to God who helps us find the next right thing, where to place our feet, and the people who will help us get there.
You may like this litany that was shared by Mary Lou Kownacki, executive director of Alliance of International Monasticism, for the arrival of the new millennium. This piece beautifully conveys the power and presence of the saints in our lives. Each congregation has saints and could probably write their own litany as well. I guess that’s what is happening with each passing day, really: a litany of saints and their presence in our lives. ~ 
O Cosmic Christ,
in you
and through you
and for you,
all things were created;
in you
all things hold together
and have their being.
Through Teilhard de Chardin,
scientist of the cosmos,
you imagined a new heaven and a new earth.
Through Teresa of Avila,
charismatic leader,
you inspired a church of courage and wisdom.
Through Mahatma Gandhi,
great soul,
you became nonviolent in the struggle for justice.
Through Catherine of Siena,
fearless visionary,
you forged a new path for women.
Through Meister Eckhart,
creative mystic,
you refused to abandon the inner light.
Through Hildegard of Bingen,
greenness of God,
you poured out juicy, rich grace on all creation.
Through Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
drum major of freedom,
you shattered racial barriers
and freed dreamers to dream.
Through Anne Frank,
writer and witness,
you preserved goodness in the midst of great evil.
Through Cesar Chavez,
noble farmworker,
you transformed the dignity of human labor.
Through Harriet Tubman,
prophet and pilgrim,
you led the captives into freedom.
Through Vincent Van Gogh,
artist of light,
you revealed the sacredness
in sunflowers
and in starry nights.
Through Thea Bowman,
healer songbird,
you danced the African-American culture
into the Church.
Through Pope John XXIII,
window to the world,
you awakened awareness to the signs of the times.
Through Mother Teresa of Calcutta,
guardian of the unwanted,
you enfleshed a reverence for all life.
Through Thomas Merton,
universal monk,
you explored the sanctity of every human search.
Through Mary Magdalene,
apostle to the apostles,
you ordained women to proclaim the good news.
Through Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
musician of Holy Mystery,
you bathed the world in beauty.
Through Julian of Norwich,
anchoress and seer,
you showed the Mother image of God.
Through Dom Bede Griffiths,
marriage of East and West,
you unveiled the divine face
at the heart of the world.
Through Joan of Arc,
defender and protector,
you remained true to personal conscience
over institutional law.
Through Rumi,
poet in ecstasy,
you illuminated friendship as mystical union.
Through Maura Clarke and Companions,
martyrs of El Salvador,
you rise again in the hopes of the dispossessed.
Through Rabbi Abraham Heschel,
Hasidic sage,
you answered our search for meaning
with wonder, pathos for the poor, and Sabbath rest.
Through Dorothy Day,
pillar of the poor,
you recognized holiness as bread for the hungry.
O Cosmic Christ,
in your heart
all history finds meaning and purpose.
In the new millennium,
in the celebration of jubilee
help us find that which we all seek:
a communion of love
with each other
and with you, the Alpha and Omega,
the first and last,
the yesterday, today, and tomorrow,
the beginning without end.
Amen.
If you would like to view past editions of Time with Tara, follow this link:
https://harbordistrictnc.org/category/from-the-ds/