Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

I am sure that my first Daily Bread after Easter said excitedly “there are 50 days of Easter!” It is a long season! We keep using the festal white vestments in the Church, we say Alleluia! Christ is Risen! in our services, and our readings continue to unfold Jesus’ ministry on earth in light of the resurrection. With just a few days left in this season we prepare for Pentecost and “the Season after Pentecost,” which is also called Ordinary time. The Season after Pentecost is long - it goes all the way through October! Punctuated by occasional Saints’ Days and Trinity Sunday, otherwise it is a long stretch of green vestments. I have linked here two articles about the beauty of ordinary stretches of living life as a Christian in community. The first is a reflection by a friend, Grace. The second is by someone I don’t know but I was moved by her commitment to the slow work of love. The Gift of Time to Grow (I lived in the Charis community around the time she wrote this - how strange and lovely to read about what was our norm, but upon reflection was a time of particular grace and beautiful) and Embracing the Green Growing Time

After a busy year and an exciting Easter, we as a community slow down a little bit. The heat, the liturgical year, and summer travels set the pace. Psalm 102 from this morning’s readings says “But you are always the same, and your years will never end.” There is nothing boring, or even very ordinary, about the sameness of God who is the same in each season, but there is a steadiness we can rely on. On Pentecost and looking forward into this holy, ordinary time may we trust the Holy Spirit to lead us and to teach us to notice the Spirit’s action in the world.

In Christ,

Mtr Taylor