Monday Message, June 14, 2021
KNOW
Happy Flag Day. This week, please make sure you RSVP to Patrick if you are attending the Wine Down on June 22, 2021 at the Donovan home – 5 to 7:30 pm.
Also join us for the webinar on Grieving What We’ve Lost.
Please make sure your pastor (and you) take a look at the Update for June 2021 from The Leadership Institute.
Save the date for the Catechetical Summit in August – all pastors and faith formation leaders are strongly encouraged to attend.
The calendar of events 21-22 is online in case you missed it. So are the considerations for fall 2021 in case you are in the midst of planning for the fall.
REFLECT
In Wayne Muller’s book Sabbath, the author reminds us that rest is not optional; it is a command. In the Ten Commandments, we are commanded to keep holy the Sabbath, and for a faithful Jew, that meant resting from work. The busyness of our lives can become like a violence in our midst, forcing us to work day and night, respond to emails at all hours, and work tirelessly to “get the job done.”
When we live without listening to the timing of things, when we live and work in twenty-four-hour shifts without rest – we are on war time, mobilized for battle. Yes, we are strong and capable people, we can work without stopping, faster and faster, electric lights making artificial day so the whole machine can labor without ceasing. But remember: No living thing lives like this. There are greater rhythms, seasons and hormonal cycles and sunsets and moonrises and great movements of seas and stars. We are part of the creation story, subject to all its laws and rhythms.
This summer, let us make a conscious effort to rest. It’s been a crazy year and a half and our bodies and minds will function much more effectively if we take time this summer to unplug, recharge, step back, and rest.
LAUGH
