Sunday was Pentecost, fifty days after Easter. This week, we mark Trinity Sunday.
Both Pentecost and Trinity serve to remind us of Easter. Easter is the greatest moment for the Christian Faith. With Easter, we understand the why of the Nativity.
We each have moments in life that cause us to reflect on our place and time. Family memories are some of those significant moments.
In my family, a memory shared is the story around my birth in April.
April on the Canadian prairie could be a greeting of snow storms, or wide-open fields waiting for a new crop to be planted.
The year I was born, it was snow....plenty of snow. The journey my mother and I made, with my father and the assistance of a neighbour, was so unique the story was told often. It was told so often, I learned to re-tell it with a sense as if I remembered every snowbank we traversed.
All families have stories.
My mother would tell about her journey from Scotland with her mother and four siblings. For the trip, her mother had prepared eggs: boiled, and preserved eggs in glycerin. My mother said that it was years before she could eat a hard-boiled egg, again!
In my father's family, there is the memory shared of a week-long blizzard on the homestead. My grandfather ran a wire from the homestead house to the barn, to allow for safe walking back and forth, when tending the livestock.
There are more stories! They are reflections of life throughout history. They impact our lives in various ways.
We can say a similar thing about our faith story.
We repeat these stories throughout life, to give us a basis for our journey in life.
We may ask, "why do we repeat the Nativity each year?" " Why do we have Easter, Pentecost, Trinity?"
I believe that we share these moments in history from our family, from our country, and from our Christian faith, to strengthen us.
When we become more familiar with each incident in life, we find that sharing their stories can reduce our vulnerability around those incidents.
The more often we share our journey, the less vulnerable we become.
Share your story. Share it often.
Blessings in Christ,
Archdeacon Brian +