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Thursday, October 30, 2014
Dear Friends, a reminder that we change our clocks backwards this Sunday!
Also, I've not seen anything that conveys the deeper meaning of All Saints Sunday as well as Trinity's own Rev. Jan Richardson's (Jan grew up in Trinity and is living in Orlando) reflections on her first All Saints Sunday since her beloved Gary's death, when his name will be read and a bell rung. With her permission I share it with you now, and include at the end a link to her web page in case you want to follow Jan more intentionally. I trust Jan's writing will prepare your heart and spirit to enter our special time of worship together this Sunday, and may it be a comfort to you as you remember your own loved ones.
A Reading for All Saints Day: Revelation 7.9-17
The Lamb...will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
- Revelation 7.17
For many years, I have loved the days of Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls. This trinity of days from October 31-November 2 is a sacred space in the turning of the year-what Celtic folk have long called a thin place, where past, present, and future intertwine, and the veil between worlds becomes permeable. I learned long ago that it's important to pay attention to what happens in these days. Mostly what happens is that the days offer a window onto my life-a perspective that, however subtly, shifts how I see my path. But sometimes these days offer a doorway, a new threshold that changes everything.
Gary and I began dating on Halloween, the eve of All Saints. As our life together unfolded, the sense of crossing a sacred threshold with him, of walking together through a door of mystery, wonder, and love, never disappeared.
It seems beyond belief that this year, when our church celebrates All Saints Day, Gary's name will be among those read in the litany of remembrance; that, as for each of the beloved ones who have died in the past year, a bell will sound for my husband, who has crossed a threshold that is beyond my reach. Yet the Feast of All Saints assures us that even here, in the depth of our grief and loss, there is a doorway, a place where the worlds touch.
As I approach this first All Saints Day since Gary's death, I am pressing my ear to that door. In the depth of my sorrow, I am learning that Gary and I still have thresholds to cross; that mystery and wonder abide, drawing us more and more deeply into the love that has little regard for matters such as death and time.
Jan Richardson
Click here for Rev. Richardson's Link:
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