Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

One of my favorite books on ministry, and one that I return to often, is Archbishop Michael Ramsey’s The Christian Priest Today. It has a series of essays and lectures that Ramsey gave to prepare priests for ordination. While some of the passages are quite specific to priestly ministry the vast majority could be read by any Christian applying to their own ministry.

My favorite quote from it is this one:

“Amidst the vast scene of the world’s problems and tragedies you may feel that your own ministry seems so small, so insignificant, so concerned with the trivial. What a tiny difference it can make to the world that you should run a youth club, or preach to a few people in a church, or visit families with seemingly small result. But consider: the glory of Christianity is its claim that small things really matter and that the small company, the very few, the one man, the one woman, the one child are of infinite worth to God. Let that be your inspiration.”

I talk to so many of you about the small things you do — the change you make from heart to heart — one soul at a time.

I see the bags of food you had out. I know the ways you helped a young migrant man trying to make a home here. I hear the passion you have for the kids you serve as a child advocate. I’ve watched the tears come as you talk about the power of being a mentor. I’ve seen you writing notes, making meals, and asking for prayers for one another. You visit the sick, widows, and those in prison. You share clothing, your homes, and your cars. You help with rent, buy musical instruments, and shoes too.

I see all of this and so much more. It would be easy to think that any one of these small acts of ministry are too little. Yet, in the life of the ones you serve and help and love, it may be everything. It may be the sign they need to know they are loved and that hope is worth holding on to.

That’s the ministry of the Christ we follow — one blind man, one possessed soul, one resurrected life at a time. It is by such that we learn, again and again, that the treasure of the Church is found in the poor, the hungry, the grieving, and the lost. Thank you for all the ways you tend that treasure of infinite worth.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert