Some time ago...

Some time ago I received an invitation to the wedding of one of the young adults I baptized when I was a Baptist pastor. Now there's a sign you're getting old!

Anyway, I just had a passing thought of her and hope her life is full of all good things. One of the things about being a Priest is that you have to realize your work is often beyond your horizon. It would be nice to have production reports where you could say "This past year I made so many thousand of this or that" but when you serve the Church its rarely that way. That's probably why so many Priests focus on numbers and programs, it allows them to think about their own work like most of this culture thinks about theirs.

To be a Priest is to be a link in the chain. You add to what has gone before and someone else adds on to you when you move on. You have no control over the before and after, only your section is as good or strong as you can make it, or better still as God makes it. But I do hope I didn't let her down, that young woman buried and risen in new life, and that during at least my watch and hopefully all the others she'll be okay. I'd like to think that if I never meet her again in this lifeat least I'll meet her in heaven.

So Michelle, if you're out there know that Pastor, now Father John, remembers you and will say a prayer for you today. I hope everything is okay and that you, now in your 20's or dare I say early 30's, are enjoying the bloom of your life. And if you think about me every once and so often I'd appreciate the same. I'm nearly 50 now, with gray hairs coming in but I haven't forgotten.