It feels good to be working on a spirituality app in the prayerful and purposeful confines of Richmond Hill. This convent-turned-ecumenical-community with a continuing vocation to pray for and work in the city is one of those gems representing the very best of what the church can be. The community Eucharist tonight doubled as a commissioning service for alums of Richmond Hill’s spiritual direction and healing prayer training programs. These wise souls are now, as I understand it, considered adjunct staff members of Richmond Hill, helping empower the community’s ministry of spiritual transformation. It was a pleasure to be among them, and I took the proceedings as a reassuring sign that I’m in the right place and doing the right work.
Another lovely bit of convergence: pastoral director Ben Campbell’s Epiphany sermon was about the “open-source messiah.” He’s a stirring preacher. The highlight for me: “You have to be pretty grounded in the Spirit to give a baby the gift of myrrh, the dark spice of death; and you have to be pretty grounded to receive it as a gift.” It was something like that, and it brought me up short indeed (not unlike a “creche to cross” sermon I heard recently).