March 2018

Dear friends,

       We are saddened by the tragic news that a gunman once again walked into a school, this time in Florida, and began shooting students. He left 17 dead. The usual calls for more gun control immediately followed along with the demonization of the NRA and anger pointed at politicians who take money from the gun lobbyists. The solution to the problem of gun violence seems obvious and simple enough. Take away the guns and there will be no more mass shootings.  When emotions run high, people naturally tend to grasp at straws and to look for easy answers. But the solution to the problem of gun violence is not as simple as it seems. How do you get rid of the guns when there are more guns in this country of 300 million people than there are people?  

       Australia confiscated firearms in a nationwide buy-back program and made gun ownership illegal but shootings still continue in Australia much as they did before. Why? We can answer that question by asking another. Why didn’t prohibition work in the 1920s and '30s? Laws were passed to make the production and sale of alcohol illegal but people kept drinking all the same. Prohibition had to be repealed, because it gave rise to organized crime; a worse evil than the one it sought to end. Likewise, in the 1980s we appointed a Drug Czar to fight the war on drugs. How well has that gone? Sadly, we have lost that war. Why? Because, organized crime will not be deterred by laws and because there is a great demand in this country for pot and crack cocaine. People who want to get high will find a way to do it; as every teenager in this country crying now about gun control knows.

       We can abolish the second amendment but people who want a gun will still be able to get one and shootings will continue. Why? Because, the problem isn’t guns. The problem is sin. Human nature, created in the image of God is basically good. But human nature has been corrupted by sin. Sin, the rejection of truth and the attraction we have to believe and prefer lies, is the root of our problem. Sin can only be controlled and overcome by grace. Therefore, the problems we have, shootings, alcoholism, and drug abuse, can only be solved for us by God. We need God. That’s the truth. And until we turn to God and accept the truth, our problems will only intensify.

      For example: it is a terrible thing when 17 students get murdered for no reason. We all stop as a nation to mourn. But on the same day as those poor children were gunned down, about 100 of our friends and neighbors were killed in car accidents. This mass slaughter gets no notice because the deaths were spread over all 50 states. Were the lives of those victims less important? But where is the call for action? Where is the call for justice? Why is there no passion to end this brutal slaughter on our highways? Most of the accidents are caused by drivers under the age of 25? Isn’t it time that we raised the legal age of driving to 25? Isn’t that an obvious solution; one that would save dozens of lives a day? If guns kill people, cars kill even more people. Should we not make car ownership illegal?

       About 75 people a day die from prescription drug overdoses? Should we not shut down the pharmacies, make opioids illegal and throw the doctors who prescribe this stuff in jail? Why not? It would save thousands of lives a year.

       About the same number of people die every day from overdosing on non-prescription drugs as die from prescription drugs. How is it possible that so many die each day from heroin and crack when we have laws forbidding the sale and use of those drugs? It happens because laws don’t matter to law breakers. God told Adam what would happen to him if he ate of the forbidden fruit but he ate of it anyway. That’s the problem. The problem wasn’t the fruit on the tree. That problem isn’t guns or cars or drugs. The problem was the sin in Adam’s heart. And that still is the problem. People who think that laws are made to be broken are the problem. Restore respect for the natural laws of God and for speed limits and for other civil laws and you will solve the problem.

       Why didn’t we have these problems, at least not nearly as awful as we have them today, in the 1950’s? Back then we left home without locking our doors and walked around at night without fear because the vast majority of people in this country went to church and took their kids to Sunday School. And as a result, the vast majority of Americans had respect for the laws of God and for the civil laws. The whole attitude was different. What’s changed? What’s changed is that there is no “war on women” in this country. That is classic demagoguery designed to confuse fools. But there has been a war on Christianity and a whole sale rejection of Christian moral values propagated by the sexual revolution that has ripped up the fabric of this culture and left us in shreds. Everyone today is “liberated." But the liberation we celebrate today in the secular culture is a false liberation. Jesus Christ is humanity’s Redeemer. We are only truly liberated from sin to the extent that we conform to his word and allow his grace to heal our souls.

        In other words, when this county gave up on Christ in the 1960s and embraced the sexual revolution, we began living a lie. We are all paying today for that betrayal of the truth. That’s the truth. And until America faces up to it, you can confiscate all the guns and pass all the laws you want, but you’ll never solve the problem until you restore in the hearts of the American people respect for the laws of God.

Faithfully,

The Reverend Jansen String

Dates to Remember

Sunday March 4   Holy Eucharist 9 am.  Fr. Tobias Haller will preach and celebrate.

Thursday March 8   Easter Egg Making begins, 5pm

Friday March 9   Easter Egg Making, 9:30am–4pm

Saturday March 10   Easter Egg Making, 9:30–4pm

Sunday March 11   Holy Eucharist, 9 am.  Easter Egg Making continues following the service, lunch at noon

Monday March 12 Easter Egg Making, 9:30–4pm

Tuesday March 13 Easter Egg Making, 9:30–4pm

Wednesday March 14   Easter Egg Making, 9:30–4pm

Saturday March 17   Easter Egg pick up, 10 am–4pm

Palm Sunday March 25   Holy Eucharist, 9am

Holy Thursday March 29   Holy Eucharist followed by stripping of the altar, 7pm

Good Friday March 30   Stations of the Cross and prayers, 7pm

Easter Sunday April 1  Holy Eucharist, 9am

February 2018

Dear friends,

                      The season of Lent has begun. Ash Wednesday was February 14. Ash Wednesday is a day of fasting. Fasting is neither a punishment nor a torture but a way of prayer; a way of keeping our attention where it first belongs: on God. Self denial is good for the soul. By fasting, we give up something dear to us in imitation of Christ who gave up everything to save us from our sins. In this way the season of Lent begins: a season for looking at the way we live as compared to the example of holiness that Jesus set before us.

       Christ has called us to “repent and believe” (Mk.1.15) and to “take up [our] cross[es] daily” (Lk.9.23) and follow in his footsteps. Lent is the season for each of us to renew our efforts to be faithful and do the good works to which Christ has called us, mindful that all good work begins with true repentance, turning away from all that distracts us from the Gospel; and dedication to suffering for the sake of obedience to God’s word.

        Jesus was not an armchair general. He led by example. He gave up the comforts of home to devote himself to the work of forming the church. And He let nothing stop Him from the mission God had given Him to suffer the weight of the cross and sacrifice Himself for our sins on that cross. He calls each us at baptism to be a member of that church that He called “my church” (Mt.16.18) and to look faithfully to the cross for our salvation.  

       As Christians, baptized with the Holy Spirit, we know this. We know what he expects of us and we try. Every Christian I have ever known tries to live for God. Nevertheless, we get distracted. All of us fall away. The world wears us down and before long, almost in spite of our best efforts to hold onto the faith, we lose our focus. We succumb to temptations; small ones at first and then bigger ones. We quit coming to church on Sundays. We stop praying. And before you know it we find yourself saying things like “we’re all beautiful children of God,” “we all go to a better place after we die,” and “all that really matters is that we be the best person we can be” and “do what we can to make the world a better place; God doesn’t ask more us than that.” When you find yourself thinking like that, you know you’ve lost your faith and the liberal culture has swallowed you whole. If any of those platitudes were true, the Son of God would never have had to suffer the strictures of our mortal nature or die on a cross to save us from our sins.

       Use this season of Lent to your advantage. Through prayer and fasting, renew your faith. Come to church each Sunday. Seek anew God’s direction for your life. And together let us focus on what is most important: to love the gospel and to live in such a way that Christ will be proud of us.

Faithfully,

Dates to Remember:

February 18, First Sunday in Lent: Holy Eucharist 9am

Thursday March 8, Easter Egg making begins

March 25, Palm Sunday

April 1, Easter Sunday

Prayer List

At the present time, several of our church members and friends are in need of our prayers. Ed Kopicki slipped on the ice and broke his shoulder. He is at home now recovering from a five -hour surgery. He will be doing therapy for 12 weeks. Ruth Bunting is in the Heritage nursing home on German Hill Road recovering from a fall. Wes Green is still recovering from the heart attack that he had this summer that caused him to need a tracheotomy. He is still suffering with the tube in his throat. Judy Martin has completed chemotherapy and is at home recovering. Ginny Prietz (Judy’s daughter) is in need of a liver transplant. Tony Mancuso injured his back and had surgery before Christmas. He told us in church last week that he is healing but has to use a cane and is still is unable to go to work.

       My friend Rheeta Chetri wrote from Bhutan that the little church to which she belongs was meeting in a home but was forced out and has no place now to meet. Bhutan is a Buddhist kingdom and Christian churches are not allowed to openly organize or own property. Book stores in Bhutan do not even sell Bibles. Please pray for The Living Stones Church that God will provide a meeting place for them.

       Our good friend Joe Casagrande Sr. age 92 ( father of Joe Jr.) died early Sunday morning at home surrounded by his family. The viewing will be at Ruck Funeral Home (on York Rd just south of the  beltway) 2–4 and 6–8 Thursday . The Funeral will be at Ruck Funeral home Friday at 10:30.  May light perpetual shine upon him; may his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace.

       We have a prayer chain ministry of faithful people who pray for others in crisis. If you would like to be part of the prayer chain call Carol Jean Cordle 443 756 2537 and he will fit you into the chain. If you need prayer at any time, call me Fr. String, 410 262 2005 and I will begin the prayer chain for you.

May 2017

Dear Friends,

       Last week Conni and I traveled to Lafayette, Louisiana, where we enjoyed meeting the parents and family of the young man to whom our youngest daughter Katie is engaged. Katie and Matt Burris will be married in August. His parents invited us to come to their home for a few days to get better acquainted. We had a wonderful time “on the bayou,” ate crawfish gumbo and barbeque and left felling happy and confident about the marriage.

       I also discovered something that in another way strengthened my faith. In the town of Grand Coteau, just a few miles north of Lafayette, is a shrine dedicated to a miracle attributed to Saint John Berchmans. Conni and I drove out there one afternoon to learn more about it. I’m glad we did. We wandered down a long country road until we came to a small Catholic school occupying what used to be a convent. We entered the building and were directed to a room on the second floor that used to be the infirmary of the convent. It is now a small chapel. It was in this room that in December of 1866 a young woman seeking to become a nun received a miraculous healing. What follows is the story of that miracle. It’s a wonderful story. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Shrine of St. John Berchmans

       Few spots in America have been so unpredictably involved in sacred history as a tiny town situated on what was, some two thousand years ago, the west bank of the Mississippi, not far from where it flows into the Gulf. It is called Grand Coteau, from its situation on a sloping ridge or coteau—not a lofty ridge, but a long one. Though a superhighway runs near Grand Coteau today, it is still somewhat off the beaten track.

However, what gives Grand Coteau a unique place in the history of holiness is the Convent of the Sacred Heart—the oldest convent in continuous existence in the entire Society of the Sacred Heart. It is associated with several notably holy persons: two of them canonized and one (so far as we may humanly judge) likely someday to be declared a saint.

       St. Philippine Duchesne, of the Religious of the Sacred Heart, was instrumental in having the convent established in 1821, and she visited here in 1822 and 1829.

But even more dramatic, and perhaps even more significant in American Church history, is the little known case of the apparitions of St. John Berchmans and the miracle, worked through his intercession, which led to his canonization. It happened in 1866, just two years after the end of the Civil War. The site of the miracle is still visited by pilgrims in the main building of the convent.

       Today the holy spot is appropriately transformed into a chapel—a very simple, unadorned chapel worthy of the modest saint to whom it is dedicated. John Berchmans, the most unassuming of saints, was a Fleming, born in Diest (in what is now Belgium) on March 13, 1599. An ideal youth, he felt the special call to serve God as a Jesuit.

Mary Wilson, the beneficiary of the miracle, was born in New London, Canada, September 20, 1846. Becoming interested in Catholicism, she asked for further instruction, and was received into the Church on May 2, 1862. Four years later, she entered the novitiate of the Society of the Sacred Heart as a postulant. Her health was poor, but it was thought that the gentler climate of South Louisiana could be a remedy. She arrived there on September 20, 1866, and was to receive the habit of the Society on October 20 of that year. However, her health continued to grow worse, and on October 19, she was confined to the convent’s infirmary.

We have, in her solemn attestation, a detailed account of the events before the miracle, and since her own words are personal and warm, it would be better to quote them directly.

       “On the 19th of October I was obliged to report to the infirmary, and I did not leave it until the 15th of December, the day after the one on which God was pleased to manifest His Power and Mercy in my behalf. During all this time I was dangerously ill, vomiting blood two and three times a day, with constant fever and violent headaches the greater part of the time; and still the pain in my side continued.”

“I do not think I had eaten an ounce of food for about forty days. During that time I had taken nothing but a little coffee or tea, which for a week before I recovered I could no longer take. And for two weeks no medicine had been administered. The doctor said it was useless to torture me more. So, he stopped giving me any. The last two days I was unable to take even a drop of water.”

       “I endured the pangs of death. My body was drawn up with pain; my hands and feet were cramped and as cold as death. All my sickness had turned to inflammation of the stomach and throat. My tongue was raw and swollen. I was not able to speak for two days. At each attempt to utter a word, the blood would gush from my mouth.”

“Being unable to speak, I said in my heart: “Lord, Thou Who seest how I suffer, if it be for your honor and glory and the salvation of my soul, I ask through the intercession of Blessed Berchmans a little relief and health. Otherwise give me patience to the end. I am resigned.” Then, placing the image of Blessed Berchmans on my mouth, I said: “if it be true that you can work miracles, I wish you would do something for me. If not, I will not believe in you.”

       “I can say without scruple of fear of offending God: I heard a voice whisper, “Open your mouth.” I did so as well as I could. I felt someone, as if put their finger on my tongue, and immediately I was relieved. I then heard a voice say in a distinct and loud tone: “Sister, you will get the desired habit. Be faithful. Have confidence. Fear not.”

“I had not yet opened my eyes. I did not know who was by my bedside. I turned round and said aloud: But, Mother Moran, I am well!”

       “Then, standing by my bedside, I saw a figure, He held in his hands a cup, and there were some lights near him, at this beautiful sight I was afraid. I closed my eyes and asked: “Is it Blessed Berchmans? He answered: Yes, I come by the order of God. Your sufferings are over. Fear not!”

       “For the glory of Blessed John Berchmans, whose name be ever blessed! I deem it my duty to declare here, that from the moment of the cure I never experienced the slightest return of my former ailments. My flesh and strength returned instantaneously, I was able to follow all the exercises of community life from that moment. So that, after two months of cruel suffering and great attenuation of bodily strength from the want of food, I was in an instant restored to perfect health without a moment’s convalescence and could eat of everything indiscriminately, I who for thirty-eight days previous could not support a drop of water.”

       “The doctor called to see me that evening, and what was his surprise to see me meet him at the door. He was so overcome that he almost fainted, and Mother, perceiving it, said: ‘It is you, doctor, who needs a chair!’

Doctor examined the condition of my mouth and tongue, testified to their being well and that my appearance was that of a person in perfect health. The good doctor next inquired if I had eaten anything, and when the waiter containing remnants of my dinner was brought to him, he expressed anew his surprise, and once more declared that no human means could have ever produced such an effect.”

       Dr. Millard’s sworn statement of February 4, 1867, reads as follows: “Not being able to discover any marks of convalescence, but an immediate return to health from a most severe and painful illness, I am unable to explain the transition by any ordinary natural laws.”

       The miracle of Grand Coteau has the same flavor as those of the Gospels and of the Church’s history. It is a stunning reminder that God wants us to pray always and insistently. Perhaps even more, the miracle reminds us, who may be prone to be neglectful of the saints, that God continues to work through human agencies, after their death as during life.

                                                                      ***

       This story reminds me that we cannot, as so many do today, dismiss the supernatural as though it was nothing but imagination. God is with us (Mt.1.23; 28.20) and God comes to us in many and various ways. In this season of Easter, when we meditate on the mystery of Christ’s resurrection, expect a miracle in your life. God responds to faith. Keep praying without ceasing and keep the faith! God will answer your prayers always in the ways that may be best for you.

Faithfully,

Fr. Jansen String

Dates to Remember

Saturday June 17  Flea Market , bring donations and put on the stage

Sunday June 25 Baptism of the String’s grandson @ 9 am service, Parish Picnic to follow, bring covered dish to share, vestry will provide hamburgers, hot dogs and drinks.

January 2017

Dear Friends,

      This election, we might all agree, was interesting and contentious for a variety of reasons. For instance, many contend that Trump is an “Illegitimate” president; that he won the election only because Vladimir Putin tipped the election in his favor by hacking into the DNC computers. It’s not my place to comment on the politics of this election. But I would like to address the religious issue raised by this hacking incident.

       It’s not the hacking per se that caused some voters to think twice about voting for the Democratic candidate. The Russians and the Chinese have been wrecking havoc with the internet for years. We already knew that. We’re all vulnerable. That’s not really news. It was the content of the revelation that was disturbing to some voters. One email exchange was particularly shocking.  Sandy Newman wrote to John Podesta as follows: “There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic Church.” Podesta made this astonishing reply, “ We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this. But I think it lacks the leadership now to do so. Likewise Catholics United. Like most Spring movements, I think this one will have to be bottom up.”

       Since when is it the work of political parties to change or influence the churches in America? This admission by Clinton’s campaign manager that the DNC has plotted to corrupt the Catholic Church is one of the most outrageous violations of the principle of separation of church and state ever exposed in this country. My question is: who cares? No one seems to be talking about this. No actual laws have been broken. No one is going to jail. The truth is that Catholics in Alliance and Catholics United have been around for so long advancing the cause of liberal theology in the church that no one notices anymore how corrupting all of this is. Almost all of the churches in America have been pulled so far in the direction of the poltical left in the last forty years and are so strongly influenced at the highest levels by those who identify with the progressive movement, that most people met this revelation with a yawn.

     It’s sad but common knowledge now out in the open that the whole liberation theology movement was created and pushed on the church by the KGB. As part of their cold war strategy they infiltrated the seminaries in Europe and quietly worked to corrupt the church from within by making Marxism, state sponsored atheism, acceptable to the church. Liberation theology is no small thing. It gave us the Reverend Wright, who Barack Obama said was his spiritual mentor; and it radicalized the Jesuit order of which Pope Francis is a member. The DNC is a party of the left. I guess it’s no big shock to see them doing the kinds of things that the KGB has done. The Catholic bishops don’t seem to care. You don’t hear them crying out for justice.

     But that is just the point. No one that I can see, besides the very few conservative Catholics left in this country, is shocked or scandalized by this revelation. Did anyone really change his or her vote because of this? I doubt it. So, for what it’s worth, I don’t think that the hacking scandal did much to affect the outcome of the election, but I do think our reaction to it says something about the direction that the churches in America are moving; none of which is good.

    Our Lady of Fatima appeared one hundred years ago this July to warn the world against the evils that were about to spread around the world because of the Russian revolution. They will continue to spread evil and to diminish the influence of the church upon the world until the church unconditionally stands up to it and rejects it. That has yet to happen. Until it does, Russia is going to be a terrible problem. Therefore, it should come as no surprise to anyone that Russia is working to corrupt our democracy, our elections and our churches. That’s what they have been doing for a century now and will continue to do. We need to be vigilant and pray for our nation and for our leaders. God is faithful and so too must we be.

Faithfully,

Fr. Jansen String

Dates to Remember

Sunday Jan. 29 and Feb.5: Holy Eucharist @8 and 10 am. Fr. Bill Dunning will preach and celebrate.

Sunday Feb 12 Family Breakfast 9 am.

Sunday Feb. 19 Coffee hour following the 10 o’clock service

Wednesday March 1 Ash Wednesday Holy Eucharist 7pm

Sunday March 12 Vestry mtg.

Thursday March 23 Easter Egg making begins

We’ll resume the Bible Study this spring after we complete the Easter Egg making.

You will find a lot of good information on our website, including the sermons, some in written and some in audio format. I have also written meditations for Holy Week that I think you will like.

Remember that we have a prayer chain ministry. If you need prayer for yourself or a loved one call Cindy Kopicki to start the chain 410 284 1665.

If you or a loved one have to be hospitalized, or have a problem and just need to talk, call Fr. String 410 262 2005. We’re here to support you.

December Newsletter

Dear Friends,

       Most of you know by now that I went home on October 3 to be with my Dad for his 89th birthday. Two weeks later, he died. I wrote about the experience of losing him in the sermon that I delivered Sunday November 13. I’m including that sermon with this newsletter.

       I have now lost both of my parents. One thing I have learned is that it matters little how old you are when your parents die or how old they are. Age does not mitigate the grief. After my dad died, I felt like I was walking on thin ice, on a deep lake of cold water into which I might fall at any moment. Here we are a month later and I still sometimes have that feeling. It’s a feeling of dread, of momentarily feeling terribly unsure of where I am; a fear of being horribly alone and disoriented. It passes and I soon return to my normal way of being in the world. But grief is a hard thing. It doesn’t let go quickly.  Your parents are your parents, and when they go your world changes completely. No matter what age you happen to be at the time, once they die, you suddenly become a lot older.

       When I was a kid, I used to think it would be ideal to live to be 100. The closer I get to that age, the less ideal it appears to be. The challenges of aging are immense. The young who have challenges of their own do not see them. Perhaps it’s best that way. They say that wisdom comes with age. But that wisdom is often only gained by enduring difficult sacrifice and sorrow. One person loses her memory. Another can no longer walk without falling. One has no energy left. Another outlives her savings. Everyone who lives long enough to outlive his closest relatives carries a weight of grief that breaks the heart of the strongest. There’s nothing easy about growing old.

       But there is nothing easy about life at any stage. No matter what age we are, we all face the same challenge: to become a saint and be the man or woman that Christ has called us to be; to be a person who does not run from the cross of Christ but embraces it and makes it his or her own.

       As we come to the season of Christmas, a season when Christians celebrate the love of God revealed to us in the incarnate Son, we see how exaggerated our grief and fears really are. Since the Son has made us his own, and all that is God’s is His and all that is His is ours, what have we to fear from death which having no hold on Him has no lasting grip on us? Whatever stage of life we cross, our task is always the same: to let go of our fears and trust in Him who loves us perfectly. God does not promise to free us from tribulation but he does promise, “I am with you always.” And that is a word that brings peace to our souls at every age.

Faithfully,

The Reverend Jansen String

August 2016

Dear Friends,

                        This week I turn 64. After I announced this to the ten o’clock congregation last Sunday, one of our choir members sang to me a Beatles song: “Will you still need me? Will you still feed me, when I’m 64?” When I was sixteen and listening to Paul McCartney sing that song, “64” seemed like a dream, like an age so far away in the future that it would never actually happen to me. I remember being very young, about 4 or 5, and celebrating my grandfather’s 64th birthday. I don’t remember the details of the party. I just remember that I thought at the time that he was ancient. I guess this means that I am now ancient, or at least in the eyes of my grandchildren I am. We’re having a birthday party next week to mark this august occasion and our granddaughter Barbara, age 3, will be there. I’ll make a special point of telling her I’m 64. Who knows? Maybe sixty years hence she’ll remember an ancient old man in his glory and be glad for the memory when her turn comes.

        In any event, I have good news for you. Being ancient isn’t really so bad. In fact, I think that life is better now in many ways than it was then, when I was young and thought I’d live forever and never age. Yes my knees barely bend, I run to the toilet all night long and I avoid looking in the mirror in the morning because the old face I see there is not someone I know or want to admit I know. But when you get past all the aches and wrinkles, unwanted bulges and dents that go with becoming an antique, you realize that there is so much more to life than the young ever imagine. Like a great vintage wine that gets better with age, there is a pride in being older that is really very rewarding. Little things mean more to me now. And things that used to get to me don’t get to me as easily. My mother told me once that she liked being older because when she was young she was too easily intimidated by door-to-door salesmen and too shy to tell them, “No, I don’t want that stupid broom!” She said she enjoyed being older because she had confidence now to tell people where to go if she didn’t like what they were selling. My mother was sweet and kind. She never told anyone where to go; but deep down as she got older she knew she could if she had to. I’m like her. I still avoid conflict like the plague. Controversy scares me. Maybe by the time I’m 80, I’ll be better at speaking my mind. But I’m getting there, and the journey is the better part of it anyways. It’s fun to grow up slowly. What’s the hurry? When asked once what the secret to happiness is, the witty William F. Buckley Jr. replied, “That’s easy.” He said, “Don’t ever grow up.” Most people who knew WFB would have thought him to be insufferably adult and too mature for his own good. But inside, where we all really live, I think he was saying that he had found a way to always remain a reckless boy with an endless imagination who never stopped chasing his dreams. It’s the thrill of filling our dreams that keeps us going, even if like Don Quixote they take us nowhere. That was Cervantes’ point:  it’s not whether you travel far and wide that counts but how you make the journey. On the one hand, by a certain measure, I haven’t accomplished much. But no one’s had a better journey. As a boy I loved being a patrol leader in my Boy Scout troop. I loved that. I loved being with the boys and doing all the things that scouts do. I have loved being the rector of this church even more. I love being with you and doing all the things that Christians do together. And that’s the key to feeling young: do what you love doing with people you love being with and keep doing it.

        I started out talking about growing old but the more I think about it, that’s a subject about which I am unqualified to speak, since I haven’t grown up yet. And if God is good to me, I never will. So, when I count the candles on my cake this year, I will count each one of them a blessing; the greatest being that I have, in addition to a beautiful family that really cares for each other, all of you to thank for bringing so much love into my life. And that means everything to me because along the way, at every stage, it’s the love we’ve known and shared that really counts.

Faithfully,

Fr. Jansen String