Gratitude for our St. Mark’s family became especially poignant for me at the gathering this morning (October 30) in All Souls’ Memorial Garden. (If you missed it, with Virginia Rock’s moving reflection, you can catch it on St. Mark’s YouTube channel).
As Matt read the names of the faithful departed, and as many of us planted bulbs near their ashes, memories came flooding back of those who were still with us when Don and I came to St. Mark’s a quarter-century ago. I am grateful for their myriad gifts to our parish family.
Now that I have three great-grandchildren, whom Don will never meet in this life, I am particularly aware of the passing of one generation to the next. Memories of our years at St. Mark’s continue: of the babies born and baptized here, some of them now fine young adults; of the children growing up and flourishing in our beloved community; of close-knit small groups supporting and sustaining each other; and of weddings, brunches, pageants, as well as the multigenerational gathering each Sunday of our precious church family.
My gratitude and love overflow for all the memories and those who inhabit them. They remind me too that “there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service . . . but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.” (1 Corinthians 12:4–6)