Dear Friends,
During the past few days, it is quite remarkable how many people have commented on the fact that they cannot believe that it is November already. Where has the year gone? We all seem to live at such a frenetic pace these days, that time disappears remarkably quickly and there never seems to be time to stop, to think, to be still.
In 1952 Paul Tillich, a German Protestant philosopher and theologian published a book called ‘The Courage to Be’. I read it many years ago, but I have to confess that I cannot remember much about it except the title, a title that has intrigued me ever since. After all, particularly in today’s world where we are all expected to be busy, it does take courage simply to be. The Psalmist says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God’. (Psalm 46:10) There we have it again, the courage to be still, and in being still, to know our God.
Today, Jesus invites us to have the courage to be, to be still and know that he is our God. He invites all of us to share with him in the stillness and the miracle of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. He invites us to have the courage to invite him to be part of our lives, so that he may inspire all that we shall do from this day forward. He invites us to have the courage to know that he will be with us. And in the symbols of the bread and the wine he gives himself freely to each one of us so that we shall have the ‘Courage to be’ in his name from this day forward.
With love and blessings,
Marion
Categories: Minister's Blog