Dearest Saints,

Yesterday was All-Saints Day.  On Sunday, we will remember all those who have gone before us this year.  I think this is a time when the layer between heaven and earth is a little thinner.  The cloud of the dead moves closer to us, and we move closer to them.

Jesus reminded his followers, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” As a church family, you have gathered together over the last year to care for the sick and the grieving.  You have comforted each other with words, prayers, cards, food, and hugs.  You have been the one grieving, and the one comforting.  You have demonstrated the importance of living as a community of faith.

I am grateful for the way you freely show love to each other.  May we all find blessing and comfort today and always.

With love,
Laura

God of the Living
 – A Blessing
When the wall
between the worlds
is too firm,
too close.

When it seems
all solidity
and sharp edges.

When every morning
you wake as if
flattened against it,
its forbidding presence
fairly pressing the breath
from you
all over again.

Then may you be given
a glimpse
of how weak the wall

and how strong what stirs
on the other side,
breathing with you
and blessing you
still,
forever bound to you
but freeing you
into this living,
into this world
so much wider
than you ever knew.
—Jan Richardson
from The Cure for Sorrow