November 2016
St. Mark’s News Volume 20/Issue 10
From the Rector I am writing this the afternoon of the third Presidential debate. The first two debates have set the tone for what will inevitably be the case tonight: insults, (some false) accusations lobbed at one another, and general lack of civility. We won’t go to bed tonight feeling edified or encouraged. I am also quite certain that tonight’s debate will do little to change what happens at the polls on November 8. It is true that each candidate has ardent supporters, but it is also true that this year a large number of voters will choose which candidate is thought to be “the lesser of two evils.” During this campaign season there has also been a considerable amount of fear-mongering, with dire warnings about what might happen to our safety and security should one or the other be elected. There is talk about finding some other country in which to live. And so today I have been thinking about the 14th century saint, Dame Julian of Norwich. Dame Julian was born in 1342 and is known for her writings in the Revelations of Divine Love, which is an account of the visions, or “showings” that In this Issue she experienced when she was thirty years old. When she was thirty From the Rector ......................... 1 she was gravely ill and had been given last rites. Suddenly, on the Vestry Highlights ........................ 2 seventh day all pain left her, and she had fifteen visions of the Parish Life .................................. 4 Passion, which gave her great peace and joy. “From that time on I Outreach .................................... 5 desired oftentimes to learn what was our Lord’s meaning and fifteen Caffeine Ministry ........................ 6 years after I was answered in ghostly understanding: ‘Wouldst thou Christian Formation .................... 7 Parishioner Highlights .............. 10 learn the Lord’s meaning in this thing? Learn it well. Love was his Celebrations ............................. 11 meaning. Who showed it thee? Love. What showed he thee? Love. ROTA ....................................... 12 Wherefore showed it he? For Love. Hold thee therein and thou shalt learn and know more in the same.’ Thus it was I learned that Love was our Lord’s meaning.” This is the concluding paragraph of her brief biography in Holy Women, Holy Men: “The Lady Julian’s book is a tender and beautiful exposition of God’s eternal and all-embracing love, showing how his charity toward the human race is exhibited in the Passion. Again and again she referred to Christ as ‘our courteous Lord.’ Many have found strength in the words the Lord had given her: ‘I can make all things well; I will make all things well; I shall make all things well; and thou canst see for thyself that all manner of things shall be well.” This is what I have been meditating on today: the conviction that “all things will be well.” This is my conviction as a Christian – that the God we worship is a God of compassion and mercy who loves each one of us. My Christian conviction is that the Lord will return in His time, and not because of any Presidential election. No matter what happens on November 8, “all will be well.” No matter what happens on November 8 it will be our mandate as Christians to love one another, to care for the poor, for the widows and the orphans, and to welcome the stranger. Our mandate will not change: to dwell together in
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