Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

I’ve found myself moved or inspired by reflections from Anthony Hopkins. He has a soulful wisdom I always find refreshing and deep.

I read a quote from him recently that I think merits reading and reflection. He writes,

“We live in a world where funerals are more important than the deceased, marriage is more important than love, looks are more important than the soul. We live in a packaging culture that despises content."

What a bracing gift of a quote.

Too often we do find ourselves trying to create substance from the outside in rather than letting the substance shape the outside.

You see this in architecture often. Abuilding is designed to look like an Italian villa or from the French Riviera but can never achieve the real feel because the lived substance of what formed them is absent.

Christians have long been caught up too easily in appearing Christian but when the surface is scratched there too often isn’t enough substance to have formed a truly authentic expression of a deeply rooted soul.

The challenge for all of us is to plant deeper roots.

We are called to pray, study, serve, give, care, welcome, and love with such a reverence for life and love that those we come to know experience in us a connection to Christ that is evidence of long built experience—and not a too-flimsy facade we’ve built to foster the presence of holiness or spiritual depth or righteousness.

As Christians we need to devote ourselves to breaking out of the packaging culture and to seek the content of our faith—Christ himself—with all the gifts and skill and hope we have been given.

May we seek this week to plant some new roots and to water those we have so that we may continue to grow into the full measure and stature of Christ.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Robert