From the Rector

Dear Friends,

For the last year or so, we’ve made it a habit of beginning weekly staff meetings with a poem. This week, I shared a piece by Orlando Ricardo Menes, called “Grace”. These words inspired some lively reflection among us, so much so that I have shared it in other circles throughout the week. Menes juxtaposes a view of the transactional and defensive world we so often experience with a vision of surprising and immanent goodness that holds us, infuses our surroundings, and comes to us even when we are unaware of our own yearnings.

May you know this day—wherever you are, amidst your own unique circumstances, and located in your particular situation—the immanent, absolute, unbidden, drenching love-skewed presence of grace in your life.

With you,
Scott+

The Rev. R. Scott Painter, Rector

We cannot buy it in bulk at Trader Joe’s,
Swap it for gold, or hoard shares of Grace, Inc.,
To hedge against bad luck. We acquire it
Without contract, promissory notes, or IOUs,
Neither codicils nor fine print. We gather
Grace safe from litigation or severance,
And though we might breach the strictures of creed,
It cannot be forfeited or suspended. Rather,
Grace is asymmetric, parabolic, skewed to love,
Immanent and absolute, but also unpredictable
As quantum particles, both here and there,
Both full and empty, so it might arrive
Inopportunely and thus slip under hope,
Upsetting the earnest prayer, teasing our faith,
Like some rain bands, copious cumuli,
That appear astray, unbidden, in stagnant skies
To drench at last the drought-scourged earth.

“Grace,” by Orlando Ricardo Menes