Welcome to summer at St. Paul’s!
Irene and I are happy to be back, renewed and refreshed after a couple weeks of vacation!
As many of you know, our beloved Barbara Clifford, who is our full-time volunteer administrative specialist in the church office, recently suffered a stroke. Thankfully, she survived the stroke, but her road to recovery will be a challenge. While she is asking for no visitors during her rehabilitation, she very much welcomes our prayers, get-well cards, and other gestures of loving care. If you would like to send a card, note, or other message of loving care to Barbara, please send it to our church office (188 S. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach, FL 33444), attention: Barbara Clifford. We will make sure that she receives it in a timely manner. I assure you that your prayers and good wishes are very much appreciated and such a blessing!
As people of faith and disciples of Jesus, we believe in the power of prayer. I always find it interesting that Jesus’ first disciples did not ask him how to perform a miracle, or how to preach, or how to apply the religious law to particular circumstances. Instead, they asked him to teach them how to pray! What Jesus gave to them, and to all of us, is what we now call the Lord’s Prayer. This prayer invites us to recognize and trust the infinite goodness and loving care of our Creator. It includes a humble supplication asking for God’s will (not our own!) to be done.
As we continue to enjoy summertime, I leave you with a wonderful and timely prayer from the Book of Common Prayer:
“O God, in the course of this busy life, give us times of refreshment and peace; and grant that we may so use our leisure to rebuild our bodies and renew our minds, that our spirits may be opened to the goodness of your creation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” BCP p. 825
Blessings in Christ, who teaches us to pray,
Fr. Paul+