Rector’s Reflections

November 16, 2025

Dear People of God,  

I share the following with hopes of awakening our hearts and minds to be Christ to all we meet and keep life in perspective. 

A group of old classmates at their high school class reunion was reminiscing about things and persons they were grateful for.

One man mentioned that he was particularly thankful for Mrs. Wendt, for she more than anyone had introduced him to Tennyson and the beauty of poetry. Acting on a suggestion, the man wrote a letter of appreciation to Mrs. Wendt and addressed it to the high school, which forwarded it and eventually found the old teacher.

About a month later, the man received a response. It was written in a feeble longhand and read as follows: “My dear Willie, I can’t tell you how much your letter meant to me.

I am now in my nineties, living alone in a small room, cooking my own meals, lonely, and I feel like the last leaf of fall lingering behind.

You will be interested to know that I taught school for forty years, and yours is the first letter of appreciation I ever received. It came on a blue, cold morning, and it cheered me as nothing has for years. Willie, you have made my day.”

At the same time, we always need to pace ourselves and realize we need to slow down, especially as November flies by and cold weather is already creeping in.

Slow Me Down, Lord

By Wilfred Arlan Peterson

Slow me down, Lord.

Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind.

Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time. 

Give me, amid the confusion of the day, the calmness of the everlasting hills. 

Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of the singing streams that live in my memory. Help me to know the magical, restorative power of sleep.

 Teach me the art of taking minute vacations — of slowing down

to look at a flower, 

to chat with a friend,

to pat a dog,

to read a few lines from a good book.

Remind me each day of the fable of the hare and the tortoise, 

that I may know that the race is not always to the swift – that there is more to life than increasing its speed.

Let me look upward into the branches of the towering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well.

Slow me down, Lord, and inspire me to send my roots deep into the soil of life’s enduring values that I may grow toward the stars of my greater destiny.

Amen.

And on the lighter side (a true story from Wisconsin – must be a Green Bay Packers fan!)…

“We recently had a new neighbor call the local township administrative office to request the removal of the Deer Crossing sign on our road.

The reason: “Too many deer are being hit by cars out here! I don’t think this is a good place for them to be crossing anymore.'”

With joy and laughter, 

Fr. Greg

P.S. Congratulations to Blase Cardinal Cupich, who this Tuesday, November 18, will celebrate his 11th Anniversary as the Archbishop of Chicago. God’s blessings, always, Cardinal Cupich!