Dear People of St. Catherine’s
“June is bustin’ out all over” and we ended the Fifty Days of Easter with a joyful liturgy on May 23, baptizing Parker and Miles Cole, welcoming members who had not been in church since the pandemic began, and carrying the paschal candle out to end the “sabbath of the year” as one theologian described Easter.
Now we turn to summer and the sauna that is Florida in the summer. Our choir is taking a well-deserved vacation until the Fall. They have led us faithfully throughout this difficult year, learning to sing through masks, leading us in singing the praises of God. Families will be planning vacations, I am having my cataracts removed in July, and our community is opening up bit by bit.
I want to say a word about habits, as we ease into summer. Our lives are held together by the habits we learn and practice. If you habitually save your money, you might be able to keep body and soul together when you retire. If you want to learn things, you have to practice the habits of studying, reading, inquiring and being attentive.
In our civic life, we are sustained as a civic community – at all levels – by practicing civic virtues: voting, telling the truth in all things, living according to the law, objecting when the law is unjust. When those civic habits waste away, we suffer as a civic community. Our trust erodes, our hope fades, and we feel adrift.
As Christian believers, we are creatures of habit. We just baptized two small boys and we all renewed our baptismal covenant. In those five promises we promise to practice habits of holy living – coming to church with the community, resisting evil, proclaiming the good news of Christ, serving our neighbors, and seeking peace and justice and respecting the dignity of all persons. These are the habits that keep us together. When those habits erode, we struggle as a church.
I ask you, during this summer time, as we begin to return to a life together and hope to be more open by the Fall, to revisit these habits. Especially, I ask you consider your habits of worship. During this pandemic time, many of us have remained in the safety of our homes. Because of the wonders of technology, we are able to livestream our liturgy and you can join us, in jammies and coffee.
I invite you, now, to venture out, to relearn the habit of attending church in person, to rediscover the joy of seeing fellow believers with you in the church, with live music, laughter, smiles, scripture, sermons, and receiving Holy Communion. There’s nothing like it; but you will have to begin practicing the habit of getting up, getting dressed, driving in your car, and being with us. There is room for you at church. I hope to see you as the summer progresses. We are staying safe, even continuing with our mask requirement for extra caution – at least for the first part of the summer. So, here’s to the delight of holy habits. Won’t you join us.
It has been my happy habit of writing to you once a month in the Wheel for almost two years now. Habits are wonderful things.
In the power of the Holy Spirit,
Allen W. Farabee, Interim Rector
Posted in Newsletter