Twenty years ago last night, I fell asleep on the floor of the Chapel of Glenfall, the diocesan retreat house where my cohort of curates was spending precious days before our priestly ordinations. I was so longing to be holy and was drawn to the possibility of spending the night close to Jesus, in the Blessed Sacranent. Sleep was not part of the plan. Nor was nearly causing my Bishop injury as he narrowly missed tripping over me, prostrated as I was before the altar. With typical kindness he did not break the great silence but made it clear by his gestures that I should give up the unequal struggle and get some sleep, and he would keep watch and pray for us all.
I'm confident that loving prayer continues still from his place at the heavenly banquet...As one of +Michael's clergy, you knew you could count on his prayers.
Next day in the cathedral He reminded us all just how much was to be asked of us, and reiterated how very dependent we were on prayer, as he read to us from the ordinal
.....priests are called to be servants and shepherds8 among the people to whom they are sent. With their Bishop and fellow ministers, they are to proclaim the word of the Lord and to watch for the signs of God’s new creation.9 They are to be messengers, watchmen10 and stewards11 of the Lord; they are to teach and to admonish,12 to feed and provide for his family, to search for his children in the wilderness of this world’s temptations, and to guide them through its confusions, that they may be saved through Christ for ever. Formed by the word, they are to call their hearers to repentance and to declare in Christ’s name the absolution and forgiveness of their sins.
With all God’s people, they are to tell the story of God’s love....
Oh my,- that's a glorious intoxicating to do list,..and that's not even the whole thing. But it's the last sentence that I cannot resist.
It brings me up short whenever I encounter it.
As priests and people together we are To tell the story of God's love...
In speech music and silence
In season and out of season
On days when it feels like the greatest reality of all, and on those when you may find yourself wondering if it IS, after all, unutterable folly...
We are to tell the story together, no matter what.
That, for me, the the whole point of all we do here. If there isn't a discernible route linking our manifold activity to that consequence, we may have wandered off course,, though sometimes the golden thread will be woven into our design with such subtlety you might struggle to notice it.
But my hope and prayer for my own priesthood and for the life and work of our cathedral is that sooner or later all those we encounter will hear something of that story, even the faintest echo, in everything we offer.
Just keep telling the story and trusting it will root in the hearts of those who hear.
Give thanks for those who told it to you, dear friends and family, celebrated saints of the past and everyday saints of our present.
Give thanks and pray for those who will be given that same charge in churches in our diocese and beyond this weekend, that they may be given the gifts they need to tell the story again and again.
Above all,keep telling the story here on earth...till we tell it together at our Father's table in heaven.
