Today is my Sabbath and I am at my mother’s farm, having celebrated my brother’s birthday with dinner last night, prepared by my mom, and eaten with her and both my brothers. Of course the dinner included pie, very delicious pie, made from pears from my mother’s neighbor’s tree.

Strengthen the faithful,  arouse the careless, and restore the penitent.
Grant us all things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

One of the gifts of serving in a church called St. Mary’s is having a mom as our patron.  I think of Mary trying to get Jesus up in the morning.  Cleaning up Jesus’ spilled beverages.  Packing his lunch.  Washing his clothes.  Cooking food that Jesus may or may not have liked and listening to his complaints.  Mending clothes torn in play.  Answering Jesus’ questions after school.  Listening to his stories, especially when she was too tired to do so.  Tucking Jesus in at night and praying prayers with him.

It’s good to have Mary as a companion wherever we are in our parenting journey, whether being a biological parent, an adoptive parent, a godparent, and/or a parent in Christ.

Today many students go back to school in our area.  Teachers and school staff have been back for at least a week.  At St. Mary’s, on Sunday, as has been our custom for a number of years, students brought backpacks to be blessed.  Blessings were bestowed on all students and school staff by our whole congregation.

And, as is our custom, we gave out backpack tags with the prayer that the children of St. Mary’s (which means children of all ages) pray:

Moms and dads have told me about praying this prayer with their children in the car on the way to school. I know that it’s the first prayer that comes to my lips each morning.  It’s the breakfast prayer I pray with my grandsons.

I love this prayer.  When I pray it, I hear the voices of the St. Mary’s children praying it with me.  It feels like a new start no matter what has happened the day before.

There’s a commercial on tv that shows a group of children preparing to have a good beginning to a new school year.  They are singing an adaption of the Whitesnake song, “Here I go again.”  It’s the hopeful, kid-friendly version:

I don’t know where I’m going,
But I sure know where I’ve been
I’ve made up my mind,
I’m not wasting no more time
Here I go again on my own,
Going down the only road I’ve ever known

On this first day of school, many children go to school wearing brand new clothes.  They carry new bags to hold lunches and new book bags or backpacks.  However, other children don’t because of economic and social challenges, and we pray for how we can make sure they have the clothes, food, and supplies they need and containers to carry their food and supplies.  How can we share our blessings with all children and help them feel confident and secure?

In God’s kingdom, each day is the first day of life.  Each day, God gives us the garment of Christ to wear, the spiritual food we need, and hands, hearts, and minds to carry everything we need.

And so we pray for our parish family as we are parents to a whole world of children, with Mary as our holy model:

Almighty and everliving God, ruler of all things in heaven and earth, hear our prayers for this parish family. 
Strengthen the faithful,  arouse the careless, and restore the penitent.
Grant us all things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church;through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

Today at St. Mary’s we celebrated our monthly Wednesday Eucharist, and it was fitting that we used the propers for the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin–a nice preparation for the St. Mary’s Day Festival on Sunday, August 28.

Nine of us gathered for worship and prayer.  We anointed with oil those seeking God’s healing and sent out Eucharistic Visitors to visit four families.  We offered the Eucharist in memory of those who had died in the past month.  Of course, as our Offertory prayer, we prayed for our parish family.

Almighty and everliving God, ruler of all things in heaven and earth,

 hear our prayers for this parish family. 

Strengthen the faithful, 

arouse the careless, 

and restore the penitent.

Grant us all things necessary for our common life, 

and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Amen

The color for this feast day is blue, and Alan and I pulled out our blue stoles.  Hanging on the door of the sacristy closet was my blue stole from Guatemala that my brother had given me when I was ordained a transitional deacon twenty four years ago.  When I received it, the stole was a bright, bright blue, not really the “correct” Advent blue. However, over time, it became a favorite Advent stole, and eventually, because it contained every liturgical color within its design, it was the stole I kept in my car to wear for home communions.  It has travelled a lot of miles being part of the blessing of bread and wine, persons and animals, homes and even a sports bar.

My bright blue stole went through the flood waters of the Tax Day Flood in my Prius, not safely parked in three feet of water in my garage. We rescued the flood-covered stoles and hung them to dry in my back yard.  I decided to burn, reverently, the stoles because I thought that they were so damaged that they were past saving, but a parishioner was determined to restore them to use.

After many launderings and soakings, my stole is wearable again.  Granted, it is now faded to more of an aqua color–befitting its flood journey.  The panels have become more like stained glass, the dyes having bled and run together creating new colors and patterns. I wore this well-loved and well-worn stole for the first time today for the Eucharist honoring our patron, Mary.

As we read the Gospel appointed for her day, that Gospel we call the Magnificat, I was struck that those words were sung by Mary days after she had received her invitation from God to bear God’s son.  Everything was new for her–it was like she had been given a brand new, bright blue stole.  She had no idea the wonder and delight and, yes, suffering she had before her.  By the end of her life, her “stole” would have been faded, damaged, no longer pristine, but beautiful with the memories of service that she had carried.

My stole, after the flood, is more perfect because of the wonder, delight, suffering, and prayer it represents.  This stole was given in love, worn in love, and repaired in love.  The changing colors and patterns, more beautiful in surprise, are an image of God’s yes to the prayer we are praying for our parish family–the faithful strengthened, the careless aroused, and the penitent restored as we do have all things necessary for our common life, through Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary.  AMEN