St. Arbucks Chapel – March 26, 2025
As I shared this past Sunday before my sermon, I am in Portland this week through Sunday to co-officiate at the wedding of a pastor friend’s son. Also, I will spend two days in a Benedictine monastery for a silence and solitude retreat. Lent is a season in the church year to listen more intently to God’s voice. I am thankful for the opportunity to grow in grace.
Rev. Rick Saylor shared with me from the writings of Henri Nouwen, who in a Lenten devotional, said, “In solitude, we can listen to the voice of him who spoke to us before we could speak a word, who healed us before we could make any gesture to help, who set us free long before we could free others, and who loved us long before we could give love to anyone. In this solitude, we discover that being is more important than having and that we are worth more than the result of our efforts. In solitude, we discover that our life is not a possession to be defended but a gift to be shared….In solitude, we become aware that our worth is not the same as our usefulness.”
This week, please reflect on the slide I shared in my sermon about essence vs. persona. It is a call for us to reset our souls according to who and Whose we are.
