Dear parishioners,
As we prepare for this Sunday’s online service, and BTW, please make sure you tune in, and celebrate Pentecost with us – it is a wonderful service, we are very reflective and mindful this week as many areas start to re-open. It is wonderful, in many ways, that we can start to get back to doing some of the routines we have had to refrain from for the past almost 90 days, but with that, there can be anxiety in adapting to the “new normal.”
As we are guided by our faith, particularly as we pass the milestone of 100,000 deaths, today, due to COVID19: Please take care of yourselves. Be gentle on yourself and others. Be mindful of others in how they navigate our changed world. Be kind. Be patient. Be safe. And, as always, keep those who are less fortunate than ourselves, in so many ways, in our hearts and minds. That is our ministry.
As the meditation below explores: We all have gifts. Let us continue to discover them and embrace them to help others.
Michelle
Meditation by Forward Day by Day for WEDNESDAY, May 27
Ephesians 4:11-12 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
The staff of Forward Movement has spent the past year exploring our various gifts. Guided by an assessment tool called StrengthsFinder, we have learned about our individual strengths as well as those of our colleagues and how these interplay with one another.
The experience reflects the sentiment of this wonderful passage of scripture: We all have gifts—not the same ones, of course—but each one of us has talents and skills to contribute to our ministry at Forward Movement and more broadly to building up the body of Christ.
In this letter to the Ephesians, Paul doesn’t rank the gifts, scaling them by importance or difficulty. And neither should we. God blesses each of us with the gifts we need to go out into the world; may we be brave enough to embrace our own giftedness and celebrate those of others.
MOVING FORWARD: What gifts has God bestowed upon you? How are you using them to God’s glory?
PRAY for the Dioceses of Lichfield (England) and Southwest Virginia
Ps 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30 * 119:121-144 | Isaiah 4:2-6 | Ephesians 4:1-16 | Matthew 8:28-34
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