Connections
At Mobile Pantry, where fresh produce is given to all comers, there is a line of people on the sidewalk. It’s often a half hour’s wait. By the time people are in the entryway and I greet them, I sometimes sense that people who did not know each other have made a connection. People of…
Kitten
Kids gather around a big grate in the street. I stop, “What’s up?” They say, “Kitten fell in.” I can see the little fella, way down there, sitting on a pile of debris. They’ve taped a fishing net to a rake handle but the grate is so heavy. A pickup truck stops, “What’s up?” The…
Will
Not long ago, I heard a man make his will, an oral will, what the lawyers would call a nuncupative will, spoken and not written. The man, who had been unwell for some time, sat at a table in the cafeteria of the homeless shelter with a few other men. He owned precious little but did…
Brother Lawrence
A small book came to hand, a gift from friends. First published in 1692, written by Brother Lawrence,* a lay monk in a French Carmelite monastery, it is but sixty pages. I spent an hour rereading this fine little book and I struck yet another line under these words: “That in order to form a…
Lazy
He said offhandedly, “I’m tired of my taxes feeding lazy people who won’t work.” I let it slide. I don’t know him well and the conversation would go nowhere. Still, I could have said what’s true: I have never met anyone too lazy to work. I do know people too tired, sick, depressed or disfigured…
Coins
My sister, Lorinda, was seven years old. I was eight. We were in a park, crossing a grassy field, my sister between mom and dad, holding their hands. I was off on my own, looking for treasure but lost in thought. Lorinda found the treasure, a scattering of coins in the grass. Lorinda and my…
Diaconate
I pulled into my favorite parking spot and sat in my car, lost in thought. A woman stood behind my car. I could tell she was reading the little sticker on my back window. I exited and said a cheery, “Good morning!” She asked me what “Diaconate” meant and I was happy to oblige. In…
Weary
I heard yowling in the parking lot. A boy, maybe five, his mother held his hand. He tugged and wailed all the way to their car. There, his mother released his hand. He stood whimpering as she set down her bags, rooted in her purse for the key, unlocked and opened the car door. She…
Guitar
I’m a musical fledgling, trying to learn an instrument on my own, so I perked right up when he said he’d never had a teacher for his guitar. “Well, not a real teacher. Only my mother. She never played any instrument. We didn’t have two nickels to rub together but she bought me an old…
Helper
When I hear of some terrible violence … a shooting, someone hurts or kills another, my first reaction is seldom my best: I despair. Then I wonder: From whence this urge to hurt? What is the root of violence? What happens in a life to bring someone to this? Who could do such things to…
Did You Know? – Deacon Josh
The Rev. Josh Butler is a Vocational Deacon in the Diocese of Ohio.
It is the deacon who ends the service, dismissing the congregation to go out in the community to serve. In his Deacon’s Dismissal, Josh offers reflections to strengthen and inspire us in our call to service.
