Our Thoughts and Prayers are with you

Hi Meredyth -- Nathaniel here.

I suppose it is time that I added a few words to this e-card. Rusty came over -- I think it was last week -- and I provided some advice and assistance in getting this website set up. I am amazed at the response!

Of course, while I helped to put it together, I haven't yet added my own words. I suppose my ministry is more easily expressed in technical assistance and silent prayers than in penning words of encouragement. Yet I think in such moments, God calls us to bring all that we have, even stepping outside of ourselves, in supporting acts of love. So here goes.

In the ecology of St. Mary's Chapel, I've been serving as the Bell Ringer for the past two weeks. This is not a particularly remarkable fact in and of itself, but it has given me an interesting vantage point from which to both offer my prayers for you, and bear witness the prayers of others on your behalf. I know, for instance, that you name has been on the top of the sick list for the prayers of the people. I've watched Roy pin updates to the corkboard in the chapter room. And I can testify to the quantity of flickering votives at the side altars.

Looking around both the chapel and this website, I can proclaim without doubt the vast quantity and fervor of prayers that are going up for you. And oh! what prayers we offer! If Christendom has the prayer, certainly it has been prayed on your behalf in the past couple of weeks at Nashotah House. Whether in tongues or in Latin, in poetry or lengthy liturgical form, with Anglo-Catholic circumstance or Charismatic enthusiasm, they have been ground up before the Lord and burnt before him as incense on your behalf.

I do not know if God is impressed by the variety and quantity of our prayers, or if healing is affected through them. But certainly these prayers and well-wishes are at the very least measure of love. The love you have from your family, friends, and community is very great; and even that only a dim reflection of the love God has for you.

Young and inexperienced in the ways of the world as I am, I do not know what connection there is between prayer and love and healing -- besides the fact that there is one. In any case, our love and our prayers is what we can provide, and they are what we offer in great quantity. They are with you, and they will remain with you.

Nathaniel