Jeanette Renouf

My dear sisters and brothers,

In today’s Gospel from Luke 70 disciples come back from a healing mission excited that they were successful at healing and driving out demons.

Jesus tells them the important thing is their call and responding to that call—not their success (which has more to do with their egos). They have to be reminded that it is God at work in them.

Today we celebrate the life of St. Columba whose call to mission in Scotland is the work we most remember. He responded to a call to be a missionary even before he was ordained and had already founded two monasteries for that purpose in Ireland, his home country. He went to Scotland to teach the Pics about Christ and was so successful they gave him the island of Iona where he built a monastery (597). Iona was his headquarters and center for converting the Pics for the next 30 years. Iona is definitely a holy place and I encourage you to visit if you have a chance.

All of us also have a call to live out the Gospel in our own lives. Sometimes we respond to that call better than other times. After 10 years in the overseas mission field for the Episcopal Church I thought things would ease up when we came to Saint Philip’s in 1991. But that was not what happened.

One day I asked my husband, Bob, if the call ever stopped. He told me it did not, it only changed form. Over the past 30 years I have seen the truth of what he said. We always have the opportunity to respond to God’s call in our lives.

Is God calling you today? I hope you haven’t thought it was spam and deleted that call but instead are eagerly responding to being God’s loving presence in the world, as did the disciples and St. Columba.

Peace and Love,

—Jeanette