This past Tuesday, I celebrated Eucharist at Holly Creek as part of my monthly visit there. During the homily, I asked people to think about saintly figures in their lives whom they remember and to share a little bit about them.
Many of us told how a family member – aunts and uncles were mentioned several times – modeled the Jesus-shaped life for us. One participant said that after his mother died when he was very young, an aunt moved in to help his father raise two boys. She was the one who prayed for them, and he remembers her with great fondness for this act of faithfulness.
Many of my friends at Holly Creek, now way into their late 70s and 80s, credit their current journey of faith to a family member who not only shared Jesus but also introduced them to the normative pathway of faith that is the Church.
And yet one person’s story captured our attention as we listened with amazement. This mature saint recalled how no one in her family attended church or were particularly religious. Rather, as a little girl of six (so she supposes – it was many years ago!) she had permission to walk down the street to the neighborhood Episcopal church. There, she said, she felt wrapped in love, purpose and meaning. The liturgy, the sermon, the community, the colors, the words, the music notes – these all surrounded her as a little girl and filled her with awe and wonder. When I asked her if she knew where this intuition to walk to church came from, immediately she credited the Holy Spirit.
Each person’s story is different, and yet the Holy Spirit is the unseen hand working in all our lives to draw us into the life of Christ Jesus and of his bride, the Church.
If this article moves you (as the sharing at Holly Creek moved me), reflect on how you show saintly love towards others in your sphere of influence.
Let me, then, pose some questions:
Is God calling you to invite someone to join you on Sunday?
Would you consider attending an Alpha course with a neighbor or co-worker who is lost and seeking the meaning and purpose that only a relationship with God brings?
Whom might you invite to the Community Thanksgiving Service? Kirkin’o’th’Tartan? Special Christmas Service, or Christmas Eve?
With the holidays coming up, be on the lookout for those who may be lonely – or alone for the first time because a friend, partner or spouse has recently died. Listen to them, pray for them (silently or out loud with them), initiate the conversation by sharing how knowing Jesus has made an impact on your life.
And may each one of us give thanks to those holy saints of God in our lives who have dared to show us the way to God, or who have simply been Christ to us in a time of need – and let us include our thanks to the Holy Spirit who is behind all of it!
With the love of Christ,
Fr. Chris