Of Praying Always

Sermon on Thursday night to St. Brigid’s Community

…Pray always and do not lose faith…- Luke 18:1

I have missed you.  On behalf of Laura and myself, I thank you for your prayers while we have been away.  It has been 16 weeks since I have worshiped with this community and 11 weeks since we left St. Augustine’s and Arizona.  But I have joined you on Thursday nights by praying compline, 2481 miles away, and then it doesn’t seem that we are so far.

Seminary has been draining, uplifting, and challenging in all of the good ways.  In some ways it has been spoiling me.  For the past six weeks, I have participated in Eucharist at least six days a week.  From both Episcopal and ecumenical services offered from the two communities of YDS and BDS, I can worship at least thirteen times a week.  I generally make eight.  Then there are the numerous parishes around Yale, each offering a different flavor and different ways of being an Episcopalian.  

But St. Brigid’s and St. Augustine’s is where my heart is.

I think we’ve worked very hard to make this liturgy—this time of prayer—a safe space.  But I think the word safety may be deceiving.  We are free to admit our vulnerabilities to each other, and we hold open space for all.  We should not fear our neighbor.  Yet God moves among us; to call upon God (our opening hymn is Veni Sancte Spiritus—Come Holy Spirit—from Taize) is to bring God’s power and presence into our midst.  Worship and liturgy do not simply create community and give us a way to talk to God, they offer God the space to work small ontological changes to our very being.  My experience of eight worship services per week allows me to witness a quickening of that work in myself and in others. 

Liturgy here at St. Brigid’s and St. Augustine’s changed me in those small ways.  I recognized a call to the altar.  That isn’t very safe.  It meant Laura and I moved across country, a risky move in this economy, and a dedication of three years to more graduate work.  Then there is a near-certainty of a return to somewhere in Arizona after these three years, but that remains an open question.  And I’m doing this on some vague-sounding yet certain conviction of “calling” that never sounds adequate when I try to talk about it.

Yet there is comfort in prayer and in community and in knowing that I am remembered and loved in this place.  I offer that you can expect the same.

It makes the fearful manageable…not safe, but manageable.

And we follow a God and Christ who were not safe, but good.

So pray always.  See what worship and liturgy (with God) lead you to…For God is at work here.