Dear friends in Christ,

I attended the funeral recently of a wonderful priest named Fr. Jack Flynn from Jacksonville (golfers – this is obviously a different Jack Flynn, who is very much alive!). At this moving service, we sang Hymn #10, which I hadn’t sung before. John Keble, a 19th century English priest, wrote the words. Here is the last verse:

Only, O Lord, in thy dear love,
Fit us for perfect rest above;
And help us, this and every day,
To live more nearly as we pray.

Jack was a dear, gentle man whose life and ministry – as well as the burial liturgy at which we bade him goodbye – were marked by graceful, loving, trust in God.

I was moved to tears at that service as I thought about how important to the quality of our existence is the level of our trust in God. And I mean trust in EVERYTHING! I am blessed, fortunate – downright lucky - to feel a trust in God so deep that I am not afraid of death, or anything else for that matter. How do you feel about that?

The central action in the Ash Wednesday liturgy is when we come forward to the altar rail, kneel down, and have someone make the sign of the cross on our forehead with ashes and say the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

How do you hear those words? Are they bad news – news of our fragile mortality, news to frighten or depress us? Or are they good news – news of reminder that God has created each of us, made us – man and woman – in` the image and likeness of God, and when we “return”, it will be to the hand that made us? I see those words as news of our mortality – yes, but that’s not bad news, it’s real news – news not to be afraid of, but to accept and embrace.

I pray that this season of Lent will be a time when we will each stare our fragile mortality straight in the face. There’s no need to be afraid; we have nothing to fear. We’re in GOOD HANDS!! God bless you, my sisters and brothers in Christ!

Peace, George+