Holding Fast to What Endures

Dear Friends,

We had a busy and beautiful Sunday last week with Bishop Sumner’s visit and our many confirmations. The bishop mentioned last Sunday’s Collect of the Day in his sermon. I have continued to pray this collect over the week in Morning Prayer, and I think it may be one of my favorite collects:

“Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

As nineteen people were confirmed on Sunday, we were all reminded of things heavenly, things that endure, as the confirmands made a mature commitment to Christ, and all of us promised to support them in their life in Christ.

Throughout the week, it is so easy to be caught up and dragged down by earthly things. For me this past week, those earthly things have included struggles with technology and the post office, which due to some bizarre error, is forwarding most of my family’s mail to an HVAC company in Plano! It is so easy to be distracted from eternal things, our relationship with God and with other people.

In our Moms’ Bible Study on Sunday, we are reading the book of Acts. Last week, we read about the early church and how “all who believed were together and had all things in common.” Many of us expressed a longing to live in closer community with one another.

As we come together as Christ’s body on Sunday, we have a taste of those things that are heavenly. Each new day is a new opportunity to ask God to help us order our lives so that we keep our focus on God and our neighbor.

Erica Andersen
Curate