A Concord Pastor Comments: Monday Morning Offering: 7/1

Good morning, good God!

It's just a month now, Lord,
since I ended the longest chapter in my life:
25 years in ministry in Concord...

These last four weeks off have been restful,
peaceful, restorative, joyful
and filled with so many blessings and graces,
some large, some small - and all in all,
too many to count...

And this morning, Lord,
I begin a new chapter in my life,
serving the people of St. Luke and St. Joseph Parishes...

I bring 46 years of ministry to my new post
so I'm not a beginner - but this is a new beginning:
new people, new faces and new names - in a new place
where I don't yet know my way around the sacristies
let alone the streets of these two parishes!

So this morning, Lord, I offer my prayer, my plea,
for the grace I'll need, for all the grace I'll need,
to make a good beginning of this new chapter
in my life and ministry with and for your people
whom you've called me to serve...

Open me, Lord, to all the new roads ahead:
new paths for growing in faith;
new reasons to deepen my trust in you;
new ways for serving you and the gospel;
new opportunities to grow in your grace;
and new relationships born of Jesus' love...

And I offer a prayer for patience, Lord,
that the people I'm called to serve
will be patient with me and I with them
as we come to know each other
and learn to live and share
and grow and work together...

And I offer a prayer for wisdom, Lord:
the wisdom to discern and accept
how this new experience
will grow and shape and bless me
- and the wisdom to know when to speak
and when to be silent
and how to find my way and my place
in this new assignment...

Finally, Lord, I lift up a prayer for fidelity:
I pray I'll be faithful to you, your Word,
your Spirit and your voice
calling me anew to serve your people,
in the grace that calls all of us
to love one another
as you have loved us...

Amen.