Hello –
One is an outward focused effort. We are on what we are calling a runway for growth. Three things are coming up soon that are already demanding the best of my talents and skills, all in concert with other good people of St. Paul’s. First, in March we hope to debut our Irresistible Gift Bag to be given to all visitors on Sunday Morning. Then, in May, we have our next public event in the May Day Celebration of Flowers on May 1st in our Courtyard. Finally, on Sunday, August 14th, we will have our Bluegrass Back to School Bar-b-Que. To both of these we will al be encouraged to invite friends, neighbors and acquaintances. Stay tuned to hear more.
The other is an inward focused effort. I am chomping at the bit to begin teaching Learning to Love in 2022 on Wednesday, March 9th at 7pm, both in Duncan Hall and on Zoom. (Just three weeks from today!) In Lent, for five class sessions, we will be learning to love God through our language. How can an intentional and reflective use of our words help expand our hearts in love of God? What I am discovering is that slowing down and paying careful attention to just two poems by Christian poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge can extend our consciousnesses and help us love God through our words with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength.
Come “chew” on some words and images with me inspired by the poems Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Frost at Midnight. We will be focusing on quality, not quantity, so we will be reading these two poems repeatedly, discovering new depths each time we travel through them together. I will be handing out copies of the poems, but if you would like to get your own copy of the main book I use, and to which I will be referring throughout Lent, here’s the link from Amazon to purchase Coleridge: The Major Works, which costs just under $15.
I’ve been preparing for this class for years and I can’t wait to share with you some of the things I’ve discovered and to learn from you as we each find new ways to love God through our use of words. By the end of Lent, we will each have the opportunity to use our best words to craft a Collect, which is a form from our Book of Common Prayer for a short, carefully wrought prayer.
I hope you’ll join me. Each session will have a short outline of the teaching, and will be recorded so you can see the sessions you have to miss, or review teaching you’d like to hear again.
I hope you’ll join me in the outward work of invitation and welcome and the inward work of loving God through words.