How did I get to be so lucky

 “How Did I Get to Be So Lucky?”

A Farewell Meditation by Fr Paul

In the Name of God; the Most Holy, Undivided, and Everlasting Trinity. Amen

How did I get to be so lucky to be your Anamchara? What were you thinking of when you picked the likes of me? You realize it has been 10 years this past Sunday. What a fun ride that was! And what a privilege to walk with you the Pilgrim’s Way. It was also 10 years ago that I underwent gastric bypass surgery and lost more than 100 lbs! And I’ve maintained that weight loss. Ain’t I lucky to have a medical team I have. And talk about luck. It has been 15 years since my prostatectomy and radiation treatments. There’s some of you know that story! Now I’m on two forms of hormone therapy to keep the cancer confused as to my gender identity. Talk about being non binary! How lucky am I.

And that’s just me. Imagine my ancestors survived the Great Hunger in the Old Country. Two thirds of the villagers died in my ancestral home. Another two thirds died aboard the coffin ships in the passage to America, and a bunch more got shipped back again when disease claimed their souls in quarantine. There was immigrant hostility in Yankee Boston; “Irish need not apply”. And here I am a priest in “the” Yankee church for 52 years this month. How did I get to be so lucky?

My dad and his shipmates played hit and miss games with German U-boats during WWII. His eyes would light up his head would rear back and he’d roar with laughter when he told me; “Hey kid, life is a crap shoot!” And now here we are each with a story to tell of how we come to be gathered together today. How did we get to be so lucky?

But it wasn’t by a roll the dice that we got to be here. I believe it is by the Grace of God that we are here, Grace upon Grace. As Peter tells us in today’s first lesson; “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” What a Joy to follow the Way of Jesus! I cannot begin to describe the love that’s in this room and online today. Do you have any idea how much I love you, have loved you will love you? But infinitely more is the love of God for us. Not only here and now, but when we leave this place and return to our homes, workplaces, churches for the Grace of which I speak fills us and carries us in ways we can hardly begin to fathom. As the Psalmist says; “Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning; * so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.”

Which brings us to the intersection of this moment. We prepare our hearts now to pass the baton. The Abbot to the Abbess and the Anamchara to the Anamchara. Brother/Abbot John Brendon to Sr/Abbess Patricia Sarah and Fr Paul to Fr Jeff. What Grace!

But hold the phone…do you have any idea what you’re getting yourselves into? God has cast a holy eye upon you, Sr. Pat and Fr Jeff. I give thanks and praise for you, that you are willing to say yes. I’d like to say that your tenure will be uneventful. But if my experience is any indication; or if the experience of our founders and successors bear witness, life is not without its occasional challenge from time to time. 

No question we find ourselves tossed into the occasional maelstrom. Like Jesus in a storm on Lake Galilee or faced with impossible questions like whether to pay taxes to Caesar. In the former case he simply told the sea; “Peace, be still!” With the biblical literalists it was not so easy. Whatever the answer eventually they will catch him in his words and find a way to crucifixion. 

Thankfully, it never got that bad being Anamchara, Abbot, Abbess. But sure and its a wild ride we’re on from time to time.

So let me give you something to take hold of as you live into your calling, as we all live into our calling. What else do we have but the Grace of the Triune God? That’s all I’ve ever had all my life but I find its been more than enough. 

When I think of God I think of the Creator of all that is in Heaven and Earth. Jesus is my Savior and the Holy Spirit is the One who makes everyone and everything Holy. And we are the choir singing in harmony with the Host of Heaven.

We are partners with God in Creation. I think of you in your spare time engaged in the creative arts. Some of us are regaling one another with good stories and conviviality. Some seek a moment of quiet to pray or to write or read. But there’s hardly a moment goes by without our being one with God in Creation. We love to create and care for beautiful things. Art and music and literature and in ways to too many to number. Every spare moment of her life my grandmother would crochet. And her afghan still gathers me in the warmth of her love.

We are partners with Jesus in the business of salvation. God knows we’re always working to salvage what we can of the messes we make in life. This is exactly why God sent Jesus into this world. Quoth God; “Will you look at the mess! Go see what you can do to salvage what you can of the lives of those folks.” And look what he did for us. He touched our hearts and changed our lives.

Mind you we face some challenging times. There are wars and rumors of wars and climate change hastens its way towards us. And whatever happens in the election this November, America will never be the same again. But then read the history books. We’ve seen it all before. Vikings have laid waste to our sacred people and places long before this. Empires come and empires go and through it all we have endured and prevailed because only God remains Supreme. 

Be advised I have no idea how “orthodox” this approach is to the Trinity. It may smack of “modalism” or some other heresy. But I’m not all that bright. What I do know is how God is at work in me and in those around me and that’s why I speak the way I do about the God I love. And by now you may sort of catch on as to how I’m living into my faith. I speak in terms I can understand. 

Because we are also partners with God the Holy Spirit: the Hagia Sophia, She who is the Holy Wisdom from on high. She’s so beautiful.

My grandmother comes to mind of course. She was my storyteller, the gift giver of my faith. I could flee to her for a hug, a healing touch, a moment’s refuge. There’s not a day goes by I don’t call on her; “Ma...” The Spirit that moves between us is always living and true and you can see it on my face even now. Or my darlin’ bride. Talk about lucky! How did I ever find her? Talk about Holy Wisdom, intelligence or just plain love. There’s not a moment I am not without her sacred presence. 

If ever I learned anything about the sanctification of life I learned about it from them. Which brings me up to the here and now of this sacred time. You. How beautiful you are. I hope you realize how beautiful you are. How much in the presence of the Holy I feel when I’m with you. What Wisdom there is in this place. What love and affection. What a gift you are to me to each other. The Holy Spirit is palpable among us. 

Therefore Sr Patricia Sarah and Fr Jeff. Do you mind standing up for just a moment? We would very much like to hold you up in prayer. And Abbot John Brendan let’s you and me stand up too. God knows this crowd holds us up in prayer. Now it is time for you in your turn to answer God’s call as we did in ours. God knows what you’ll be called to do and who you will be called to be for us but of one thing I am sure. “The Great Shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant will equip you with everything good that you my do God’s will working you that which I is well pleasing in sight, through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be glory forever and forevermore. Amen” ~Hebrews 13:20-21.

Now I come to you with these concluding words as your Anamchara. There’s an old Portuguese folk saying. “Deus escrive certo por lignas tortas”. With apologies to my friends in Brazil for errors in pronunciation etc that means “God writes straight with crooked lines.” That is to say, as we walk the Labryinth of Life the Triune God is at work in us every step along the way, with every detour. No matter how far we wander or stray….God the Creator, God the Savior, and God the Holy Spirit is always writing straight into our hearts working out the particulars of our salvation with us. For with the triune God there is always forgiveness, reconciliation and love.

How did we get to be so lucky!

And now may the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen

Respectfully submitted,

Fr Paul Bresnahan, Companion to the Fellowship

Readings from which the above meditation stems.

2 Peter 3:11-18

Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

Final Exhortation and Doxology

Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Psalm 90

• 1  O God, you have been our refuge * from one generation to another. 
• 2  Before the mountains were brought forth, or the land and the earth were born, *
  from age to age you are God. 
• 3  You turn us back to the dust and say, *
  “Go back, O child of earth.” 
• 4  For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past *
  and like a watch in the night. 
• 5  You sweep us away like a dream; *
  we fade away suddenly like the grass. 
• 6  In the morning it is green and flourishes; *
  in the evening it is dried up and withered. 
• 13  Return, O God; how long will you tarry? *
  Be gracious to your servants. 
• 14  Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning; *
  so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life. 
• 15  Make us glad by the measure of the days that you afflicted us *
  and the years in which we suffered adversity. 
• 16  Show your servants your works *
  and your splendor to their children. 
• 17  May the graciousness of our God be upon us; *
  prosper the work of our hands; prosper our handiwork. 

Mark 12:13-17

The Question about Paying Taxes

Then they sent to him some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him in what he said. And they came and said to him, ‘Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?’ But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, ‘Why are you putting me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me see it.’ And they brought one. Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’ They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ And they were utterly amazed at him.

Cindy said; "Love one another"

Cindy said “Love One Another”

The Gospel gives us an account of Jesus’ confrontation with a madman. Mental illness of some form or another had driven this poor soul to behaviors that were bizarre on any account. Thankfully, this fellow did not have an assault rifle. We are told in the Gospel that he ran around with no clothing, had no home or connection to family and friends, but like the menace of a lone wolf, he lived among the tombs. When he came face to face with the goodness and love of Jesus, he went into a rant; “What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God?”

He begged Jesus not to torment him for Jesus had already begun to command the unclean spirits to come out of him. Interestingly enough, not only did Jesus have the ability to recognize mental illness, he also had the authority and power to restore the victim’s soul to sanity.

Just last week another madman vented his fury on innocents who were out partying. Several years ago another madman unleashed his rage on children in a Connecticut school. Only a year ago, it was a house of worship during a bible study. In Colorado, there have been mass shootings in a movie theatre and a high school. On an on it goes. 

Lets face it, we are a uniquely violent country historically and presently. Our love affair with the gun and now assault weapons has put us into a situation where we cannot avoid taking a long hard look at ourselves. At least I hope and pray we do. Most civilized and developed countries have developed laws and regulations to help minimize the violence of these weapons, most notably Australia. After a mass shooting in that country, they clamped down on the weapon’s sales and not only has there not been a mass shooting since, but the homicide and suicide rates have declined radically. Not so here. We want our guns. So be it.

As our Lord said, “The who live by the sword, shall die by the sword.” ~Matthew 26:52

Last week I was on retreat in the Detroit area. Taking time to read, rest, pray, renew old friendships, and take some time in quiet to be with God is the ancient way of the Church. It is a way of restoring the human soul to sanity and keeping it there. The Anamchara Fellowship, of which I am a part, is a gathering of like minded souls, whose friendships run deep and true. The word “Anamchara” is a Celtic word meaning “soul friend.” We are a dispersed order of religious folks. Our community is dispersed in marriages, the workday world, some retired, some still working, some married, folks in many walks of life; gay straight, black white, rich poor; a kaleidoscope of other hues of humanity. Yet we are one in friendship, like any church. Indeed we are less like any worshipping community throughout the world.

On the other hand, we also live in a world of many lonely and disconnected souls. We find ourselves fragmented by political ideology, especially in the here and now of our country. The more fragmented we are by race, ethnicity, class, gender, and orientation, the more we risk falling out of sanity into a world of depression and mental and emotional stress or falling into suspicion of the other or falling into hatred or excusing violence; verbal or otherwise against those different from "us". This kind of disconnectedness is dangerous. Fanning the flames of this kind of fear and suspicion is not only dangerous, it is frankly madness.

Thankfully, many of us have grown up enough to get help when we need it. There is no shame in accepting a diagnosis and taking medication. Good heavens, it is a sign of well being when any one of us discovers our need for help. As Jesus put it; “Blessed are those who know their need of God.” You can substitute the words “Higher Power” for “God” if you like. Coming to terms with the truth within the human heart requires a journey toward making friends, making “soul friends” within the heart of the human self as well as with the “other”.

God knows poor Elijah, had to confront the demons within himself. Not only were those demons within him. They were real. Ahab and Jezabel had resolved to have him done away with. Elijah found himself alone, for as the scripture says, he spoke to God, “I alone am left.” What loneliness that must have been. And his life wasn’t worth two cents or so he thought. And so it was, that he was driven into the madness of a dark night of the soul; there were great winds, an earthquake and a fire, but God was not in any of that. Then came the revelation. God is not discovered in any of these dramatics, God reveals the divine nature rather in the sheer silence, in that “still small voice” of which we speak and sing. It is one of the reasons I love going on my annual retreats. It is in time away, that God will refresh the human soul.

Among my favorite selections of the Psalter is today’s 42nd Psalm. I find in the words of the Holy Scripture a mirror into the soul. Such as these words today;

“1 As the deer longs for the water-brooks, * 

so longs my soul for you, O God.

2 My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God; * 

when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?”

Whether we know it or not, our souls long for the living God as a dear longs for a refreshing mountain stream. Every morning in our worship with the Anamchara Fellowship we sing the Psalm; 

“One thing have I asked of the Lord,

This is what I seek

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord,

All the days of my life.”

What then do we say in response to the hatred we see in the world we live in? How do we answer it all, as the madness of our time seems to multiply. What are we to say on Father's Day to one another? That could have been one of my kids on a dance floor in Orlando. I've got two gay kids and I love my children like you love yours. Cindy said it well, as I was preparing for this morning. Just remind them, she said;

“Love one another”. 

That’s what it all comes down to again and again. In fact, Jesus calls it a new commandment. It was then. It is now. A whole new commandment, a new way of life;

“Love one another”

You and I are not to be divided into friends and enemies. We are not to be "listed" and deported according to nationality or religion. We're all one in this country. My freedom as an American is that I need not be afraid or suspicious of folks because they are maybe a bit different. Every morning and night when I go for a walk down the Lynn Scenic Walkway by the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea, I'll see young and old; the lame and the halt. I'll hear Engish, Spanish, Swahili, Arabic, Russian and God knows what, within a short space of time. Mind you, I do keep a watchful eye out. We were taught back in the old "hood" in Somerville to be "street smart". Even Jesus told us to be "wise as serpents, harmless as doves." ~Matthew 10:16

But ultimately, day in and day out, every walk of life; "Love one another." This is the one great quality of life that will save us from falling back into a deepening cycle of violence that leads nowhere but into the madness of war.

As my namesake Paul the Apostle put it; "As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." ~Galatians 3:27,28

Steady as she goes shipmates, "Love one another."

And Happy Father's Day.

In the Name of God, the Most Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity. Amen.

Fr Paul

Our Physical Connection to Jesus

The Strong Name of the Trinity

That’s a good question Nicodemus; “What must we do to inherit eternal life?”

And the answer class? Yes, “You must be born from above”. That is to say, you must be Baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

Perhaps we can unpack that statement a bit. Let me begin with Patrick’s Breastplate. Being Anglo Irish by birth and blood, I have a predisposition to all things Celtic. In fact, I am looking forward to the annual Gathering of the Anamchara Fellowship which begins tomorrow outside Detroit. It is a community of religious, clergy and laity within the Episcopal Church, dedicated to the worship of God and service to the world. Last year, I was a speaker at their annual gathering and liked it enough to become a Companion with them. I am now their “Anamchara”, a Celtic word that means something akin to “soul friend”. I will have a special relationship to the leadership in particular as well as to the membership in general. The Anamchara Fellowship is the fastest growing monastic community in the Episcopal Church. I believe this is so because it satisfies some deep spiritual longing among God’s people and yet we remain dispersed as we are in our homes and communities as married, single, working, retired, professed nuns and monks, clergy, laity and so forth.

But back now to this idea about being born from above. St Patrick explores the idea in his invocation of God. He does so in far more ways than in the unidimensional "above". When Patrick binds himself to the strong name of the Trinity, he uses the ancient Celtic poetic form of a "lorica" much as it were body armor against the wiles of the Evil One. Here are the words which you can find in our Hymnal #370;

Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,

The strong Name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same,

The Three in One and One in Three.

For Christians being born from "above", as it were, means that we see the sacred within time and place, in buildings like this one, or in our homes, and yes in our very lives. We see the sacred in God's created order. We see it in Christ, we see it in fellowship with one another. God becomes situated within the deepest places, in the center of our souls. That's where we meet God. In prayer we may use the pronoun "Thou" when we speak to God, or we may use the more contemporary; "You". Either way to inherit eternal life Nicodemus it takes a time and a place to practice the presence of the holy. You must be born from above.

In yesterday's wonderful confirmation service in New Bedford, Bishop Alan Gates reminded us that when he places his hands on the heads of the confirmands, he passes on an unbroken physical and spiritual connection between Jesus and his Apostles directly to each of those receiving confirmation and reception.

Robert, Chase, Katy, and James; just imagine, YOU have each received the spiritual and physical touch of Jesus and the Apostles in your very bodies and souls! 

As with all Christian folk we seek to be born from above, and to bind ourselves unto the Strong Name of the Trinity. We are all required to do this by Jesus as we make our way toward heaven and eternal life. We see Baptism as the primary means by which we come to God through Christ and within the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Mind you any human being can love and forgive with or without Baptism. Any human being can muster courage to reconcile feuding family and friends. Eventually that courage must also be extended to our enemies and those who wish us harm. Hopefully everybody is so dedicated, but we know for a fact that not all understand Baptism as we do; as a total makeover of the soul. Some will use the Sacred Name as a reason to engage in warfare and in acts of terror. Violence is the total antithesis to the teachings of Moses, Mohammed, and Jesus. 

As we understand it specifically as Christians, Jesus spoke most urgently of heaven and eternal life but not so much in terms of a place we go when we die. He saw heaven as more urgently to be practiced here and now for the sake of the human race and for the future of the planet we live on. As today's Gospel puts it; "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." This is why we must be born from above; Baptized. This is the eternal life Jesus seeks.

This brings us to Trinity Sunday.

Ah yes, and right away there is the debate about the Oneness and the Threeness of God. How can God be One when God is also Three? The Three in One and the One in Three? I don’t get into these great theological questions to tell you the truth. They are too difficult for me. 

Like some of the other quasi scientific/theological debates;

Did God create the world in exactly six days? 

And was the day of Creation October 23rd, 4004BC as computed

  by the 17th century Irish scholar and Bishop James Usher?

Did God create Adam and Eve in that first week?

Did Jonah live in the belly of a whale for three days?

Did Moses part the Red Sea?

Did Jesus walk on the water?

Did he feed 5000?

Folks, I know the difference between what is essential to my faith as well as what is perhaps something more metaphorical. At least I’m bright enough to know that much. As for the rest, I just don't trouble myself with such difficult questions. I am too much a lover of Science and Knowledge to blind myself to truth. I am too much a man of faith to dismiss what is essential to life.

Science gives some marvelous imagery to help us see the dynamic qualities of God. After all creation and life are created with the imprint of God. Think, for instance, of the sub atomic structure of the universe with its protons, electrons and a host of other particles whirring about in relationship to one another. Or the magnificence of the Milky Way spinning in space like a gigantic pinwheel, and the DNA molecule with its amazing complex of genetic markers winding around itself together in a double helix; the building bloc for all life on the planet. How glorious!

What makes God so strong to me though is not so much the physics of reality’s component parts. No. Stronger to me by far is the Love of God, that binds us to Jesus and the Holy Spirit and then to one another and ultimately to all flesh and blood.

That’s what makes the Name of God so strong to me.

It is in the experience of God’s love.

The Savior’s decisive power over sin and death.

And the Holy Spirit from on High, God’s Holy Wisdom the “Hagia Sophia”, she who is our Advocate and Guide, the Gift Giver, and the One who equips us for ministry.

This is what brought the Church to Proclaim the Strong Name of the Trinity. It was not a Doctrine; it was an Experience and, by God it continues to be an Experience.

There is so much work to do and so much joy to share so that we might fill the earth with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.

There are friends and enemies to love and reconcile.

There is sin to forgive, my own as well as others’.

There are diseases to be cured, the sick and the dying to visit.

There are the poor and those in prison to tend to.

There is a dangerous world out there at war and in terror and seeking the Peace that passes all understanding. Anybody want to take that one on?

There are lives shipwrecked; tossed up on the shores of addiction, depression, and all sorts of human weakness seeking to be freed from sin and yearning for redemption. 

So much to do as we seek to be born from above in a baptized life, living on purpose for God! As Michael Marshall, one time Bishop of Woolwich, was fond of saying; “Our mission is not so much to make good folks better, it is to make bad folks holy”.

Folks there is much to do. Places to go, people to see, life to be lived. That's why I bind unto myself this day the strong name of the Trinity. And that my friend Nicodemus is what it is to be born from above.

And now may the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen 

Fr Paul

Who is Your Soul Friend?

Who is Your Soul Friend?

“If you love me you will keep my commandments”

~John 14:15

Last Sunday I was finishing up a week of prayer and fellowship with a new relatively new order of nuns and monks within the Episcopal Church. Yes my friends, there are nuns and monks in the Episcopal Church. Our Bishop is a monk; a member of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist. The monastery is located on the banks of the Charles in Cambridge just off Harvard Square. Every Tuesday they have a wonderful celebration of the Holy Eucharist for the Harvard University Community. They’ve been doing this for more than thirty five years now, and the services are always full of inquiring and discerning hearts seeking more from life, seeking something from God.

The Sisters of Saint Margaret have a community in Duxbury and my son David loves “The Margarets” as he calls them. In fact Cindy and I like to attend the special services of Evensong they hold near the High and Holy Days of the Church year. Now you know where I came up with the idea of Evensong for the feast day of the Ascension which we will hold this coming Thursday evening. I do hope you will make a special effort to attend. The churches of the Merrimack Collaborative, their clergy and people have been invited to attend and many have already accepted the invitation. It would be wonderful if St. Paul’s were to put our best foot forward as a sign of our heartfelt warmth, affection and hospitality for our brother and sister Christians in our neck of the woods.

Heartfelt warmth,  affection and hospitality for our Christian brothers and sisters and others in the world; this is our spirituality. The word “Anamchara” is a Celtic word that means “soul friend”.

I remember shortly after Bishop Shaw was elected. He spoke of his image of the Episcopacy. He saw it as an evening with a good friend, gathered in the warm glow of the fireplace with a Golden Retriever curled up between them, and on and on they’d talk until the wee small hours of the morning. They would talk of what matters most to us and to God. As the embers died down in the hearth the heart’s embers grew warmer with the knowledge and love of God.

And so it was that last week I gathered with the Anamchara Fellowship. It is a growing order. In fact it is growing faster than any other order within the Episcopal Church. As of the end of last week there were 21 professed, 8 novices, 7 aspirants, 2 seekers, and 36 companions. 

It is a dispersed order and not a cloistered one. A cloistered order is one where one enters a monastery or a convent and takes vows of chastity, poverty and obedience and stays there. A dispersed order is one where you live out your Christian life where you are as married or single, working, retired or otherwise. One takes vows of simplicity, faithfulness and obedience and lives out one’s life wherever you are. There is an annual gathering of the fellowship where you spend a week praying, learning, sharing and celebrating together. There is a daily rhythm of prayer: Morning Prayer at 7:30am, Noonday Prayers , Evening Prayer at 5pm, and at 9 o’clock for Compline. We eat together, and share our learnings together during the mornings. The afternoons are free for conversations, walks, reading, or rest. There is always a “field trip” to Graeter's Ice Cream shop for some monastic fun and frolic. After all, Episcopalians love a good time even if they are vowed to a religious order.

There is also a Quiet Day. I was there to lead it, believe it or not. And yes I do know how to be quiet, although you may find that hard to believe. Sometimes it is important to return to quiet and silence to give our spirits a rest and listen to the our breath and to the beat of the human heart. The root meaning of the word “spirit” means to breathe. “Inspire” means to breathe in “expire” means to breathe out or to die; that moment when the “spirit” leaves the body. 

Thus our spirituality involves something as fundamental and central to life as to live and breathe and to have our being. We take time to be with ourselves and with God and discover what it is that arises within us needing attention. A noisy world distracts us from these things and we are much the poorer for it. A distracted world is not a spiritually healthy world. Such a world becomes anxious and depressed and without checks and balances becomes violent to the self and to the other. Without a sense of our spirituality we will certainly loose our moral compass and our spiritual center.

Thus Jesus tells us; “If you love me you will keep my commandments”.

You will love God.

You will love one another.

You will love your neighbor as you do yourself.

You will learn to do to others as you would have them do to you.

The essential simplicity of the commandments of God especially as they are personified in Jesus in flesh as blood are an invitation and moreover a commandment to live out our lives this way.

And so I was invited to the Anamchara Fellowship and the topic was storytelling. As you all must know by now, I love to tell stories. Thus as I prepared for my presentations I settled on three stories; the one that involves the death of my father and my call to priesthood. I’ve told that one here before, in fact I told it to you on Christmas Eve. How I lost my dad at Christmas time when I was eight years old, but then how I received in my heart a sense that there was room in God’s heart for my dad. That sense has been at the heart of my faith ever since that day, and it has been at the heart of the Gospel I share with all who need to hear of God’s victory over all sin and all death. There is room in God’s heart for all. It was because of all this that I became a priest. That was my first story.

My second story spoke of my professional struggles with all the controversies that have embroiled the church ever since I even began my days in seminary. It all began with the struggle for civil rights and even one of my classmates, Jonathan Daniels, two years earlier than my matriculation, was murdered in Mississippi working in a voting rights effort. The struggle to make the Book of Common Prayer more accessible to a contemporary audience was and continues to be an issue among us. Gender equality in the church and the ordination of women was and continues to be an issue. The consecration of Barbara Harris was yet another brouhaha. But the granddaddy of them all was the consecration of Gene Robinson. 

As a parish priest of course there was one conflict after another but the one about Gene Robinson hit close to home. My uncle, the man who brought me up after my father’s death and the fact that two of my kids were gay raised up within me a great deal of inner conflict. As some of you know I wrote a book on the subject to try and work out the particulars in terms of biblical theology, and in the process I experienced a faith crisis and a mental breakdown. I was diagnosed with bi-polar affective disorder. No wonder with all the ups and downs of parish ministry and with the conflicted nature of all of its complex relationships, I lived out the inner conflicts within my own soul. I recovered and still take my meds and my psychiatrist and I keep and eye on things. But I did write my book. And it has led to the salvation of any number of young people who had considered suicide. Image. Just imagine. Being gay for instance in West Virginia. Not accepted at home, not accepted at school, and of course at church you are told you will be going to hell. You can see how the whole business of controversy played tricks with my sanity but this is the church I love. This is the family I love and by God I will love you all until my dying breath. That was my second story. It was a difficult story to tell. But there are many who go through such struggles. And willingness to tell the story gave others the courage to share their stories with me. It was hard work. But this is the work of God for the people of God. After that story I heard several confessions. 

The third story I told was of the building of a homeless shelter in the City of Saint Albans, West Virginia. It began with the death of three homeless veterans under the bridge across the Kanawha River. Because the soup kitchen was housed at St. Mark’s Church in Saint Albans, we knew the ones who died in the fire. I took up the struggle to find housing for the homeless. After a long battle with the city fathers, neighborhood resistance and a court battle, we were finally able to build a homeless shelter housing 28 men and women who suffered from chronic mental illness and substance abuse. The day we opened the shelter was one of the happiest days of my life. For me it was an affirmation of the power of God in the midst of a rather bleak prospect for the poor.

The opposition to the shelter was ferocious from time to time. Somewhere in the course of all the battles for a homeless shelter someone called the house and my wife answered the phone. The exchange was priceless;

"We're going to kill your husband."
"Take a numbah" she said in her flawless Boston accent; "I want to kill him too sometimes"
Needless to say I did not die then.

I told these three stories to my new friends of the Anamchara Fellowship. In preparing these stories, I began to realize that each of the stories was a resurrection story. In the first case we began with the death of my father, we ended with a call to priesthood which has now borne fruit for almost 42 years. In the second story we dealt with a lifelong struggle for justice in the midst of controversy. I suffered with an inner struggle for spiritual and emotional sanity and came through it quite well thank you very much. And then of course there was that book I finally wrote. I had never pictured myself becoming an author, but with God’s grace and God’s power all things become possible through the One who gives us the strength to do all things. In the third story we begin with the death of three homeless under a bridge in a fire during a dreadful winter storm. We concluded with the building of a shelter that gives far more than just a roof over the heads of the homeless. There is a whole constellation of supports for health care, job training community support. 

Our lives are full of resurrection stories. We all die little deaths from time to time. We are all given new life as well as we rise again out of the pain and sorrow we all know from time to time.

These are the stories we tell one another over coffee and tea. These are the stories we tell our soul friends and. This is how we nurture our families and our friends. We all profit from the telling and the hearing of such stories. They are born within our prayers as we consider well within our hearts; “what is God doing within my life? What is Jesus doing for me? How am I being obedient to God’s commandment to love one another, to love and care for myself and to treat others as I myself wish to be treated.

We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses as the great All Saints Day collect put it. These witnesses are our soul friends; our Anamchara. May God grant that we learn how to make and keep such friends recognizing that the greatest friend we will ever have is

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Fr Paul