Sunday, June 6, 2010

Dear God,

As I wrote to you this morning, I heard a church bell far away. I stopped, closed my eyes and listened. And I remembered.

I recalled the church bells of my childhood and youth at Grandma's tiny United Methodist Church in Atlanta, Indiana and Grace United Methodist Church in Elwood, Indiana. Then I was flooded with memories of the bells at Christ in the Desert Monastery in Abiquiu, New Mexico, at churches in Lourdes, Taize, Lisieux and Paris, France, the Vatican, in Assisi and other towns in Italy, England, and Maine all while I was on my clergy renewal. Those bells spelled a season of humility and great joy. Each one called out to the world to simply say that Christ was present.

This morning as I was walking down the street about to enter the Church on the Cape, a United Methodist Church in Cape Porpoise, Maine, I smiled as yet another bell cried out its message, really, your message of hope, love and peace.

Ring out
your gospel promise,
O God;
sing to us
of your salvation.
Tell the world
your promises,
Lord of all Creation.
You are God;
there is
no other.

Love, Andrea