Rector’s Reflections

September 6, 2026

 

 

Dear People of God,

I share with you a prayer entitled: “Help Me to Believe in Beginnings.”  As summer gives way to fall and school has begun, seasons change, and so do the seasons of our days, taking on new colors and meaning. Rooted in the Lord Jesus, may we trust our lives into the loving embrace of the Lord Jesus.

Help Me to Believe in Beginnings

God of history and of my heart,

So much has happened to me during these whirlwind days:

I’ve known death and birth;

I’ve been brave and scared;

I’ve hurt, I’ve helped;

I’ve been honest, I’ve lied;

I’ve destroyed, created;

I’ve been with people, I’ve been lonely;

I’ve been loyal, I’ve been betrayed.

I’ve decided, I’ve waffled;

I’ve laughed, and I’ve cried.

You know my frail heart and my frayed history –

And now another day begins.

O God, help me to believe in beginnings and in my beginning again,

no matter how often I’ve failed before. 

Help me to make beginnings:

to begin going out of my weary mind

into fresh dreams,      

daring to make my own bold tracks

in the land of now;

to begin forgiving

that I may know truth;

to begin questioning the unquestionable

that I may experience mercy;

to begin disciplining

that I may create beauty;

to begin sacrificing

that I may accomplish justice;

to begin risking

that I may make peace;

to begin loving

that I may realize joy.

Help me to be a beginning for others,   

to be a singer to the songless,

a storyteller to the aimless,

a befriender of the friendless;

to become a beginning of hope for the despairing,

of assurance for the doubting,

of reconciliation for the divided;

to become a beginning of freedom for the oppressed,

of comfort for the sorrowing,

of friendship for the forgotten;

to become a beginning of beauty for the forlorn, 

of sweetness to the soured,

of gentleness for the angry,

of wholeness for the broken,

of peace for the frightened and violent of the earth.

Help me to believe in beginnings,

to make a beginning,

to be a beginning,

so that I may not just grow old, 

but grow new

each day of this wild, amazing life

you call me to live

with the passion of Jesus Christ.

From “Guerrillas of Grace”     

                                                                                         by Ted Loder

And always remember:  No one can go back and start a new beginning. But anyone can start today and make a new ending.

School has started. May a little humor brighten your week…

Little Harold was practicing the violin in the living room while his father was trying to read in the den. The family dog was lying in the den, and as the screeching sounds of Little Harold’s violin reached his ears, he began to howl loudly.

The father listened to the dog and the violin as long as he could. Then he jumped up, slammed his paper to the floor, and yelled above the noise, “For Pete’s sake, can’t you play something the dog doesn’t know?!”

A blessed Labor Day weekend,

Fr. Greg