St Michael's Parish

Litchfield, CT



From the Rector


Dear Summering St. Michaelians,

We want to keep our summer Lychgates as light and breezy as the weather (this is an especially fine day coming after humidity, rain, breathless air). So, in keeping with my summer attention span that seems to float on the breeze (even more than usual), I thought I’d send out a small collection of collectibles – summer thought for food. Here they are. Enjoy!

The Merciful Lord will give you freedom from cares, and where this freedom prevails everything is done in its own time, and nothing is a worry or a burden. Seek, ask - it will be given.
Theophan the Recluse

Glance at the sun. See the moon and the stars,
Gaze at the beauty of earth’s greenings.
Now, think.
What delight God gives to humankind
with all these things….
All nature is at the disposal of humankind.
We are to work with it. For
without we cannot survive.
Hildegarde of Bingen

Compassion is a wounding of the heart which love extends to all without distinction. John Ruusbroec, The Spiritual Espousals & Other Works

We must not grow weary of doing little things for the love of God, who looks not on the great size of the work, but on the love in it. Brother Lawrence

Nothing in all creation is so like God as stillness.
Meister Eckhart

I Go Among Trees

I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.

Then what is afraid of me comes
And lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings, and I hear its song.

Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.

After days of labor,
mute in my consternations,
I hear my song at last,
and I sing it. As we sing
The day turns, the trees move.
Wendell Berry, Sabbaths

Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of himself. Ask and seek, and your heart will grow big enough to receive God as your own. Mother Teresa

The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything. Julian of Norwich

May blessing abound for you all,

Jenni



Thanks and Praise


….beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is an excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. PHILIPPIANS 4:8

Rejoice! St Michaelians Share Their Life Celebrations

Nancy Moore, long time St Michaelian and 4th grade teacher at Harwinton Consolidated school, was honored by her school with her very own “Nancy Moore” day! Congratulations!