Tonight my husband James and I were treated to a fantastic steak and baked potato dinner at our friends' home. Good conversation, great wine and blessing of breaking bread in joy... I pray for more of these gatherings in 2009. It seems we are getting so accustomed to cancel and reschedule and cancel and reschedule and ... that we really don't know what we are missing until the blessed moment comes... and we are once again connected... not on cyberspace, but in flesh and blood. We, human beings, are not created to exist without the reality of the other. The world wide web will continue to connect us in ways we have never imagined before but I do not believe it will be "enough" to satisfy the longing of our hearts yearning for real, tangible community.
A Familiar Stranger
I saw a stranger today.
I put food for him
in the eating-place
And drink
in the drinking-place
And music
in the listening-place.
In the Holy name
of the Trinity
He blessed myself
and my family.
And the lark said in her warble
Often, often, often
Goes Christ
in the stranger's guise.
O, oft and oft and oft,
Goes Christ
in the stranger's guise.
-- Celtic Rune of Hospitality
