It's already late June, our front church gardens are looking good and there are plans to redo the south-side gardens, too.  All in good time.  The church has never looked better.  The exterior painting took on its first Midwestern winter and came out just fine.  The back door has been installed and painted "Episcopal Red."  We're in a holding pattern right now as we wait for the installation of the remaining stained glass windows. Those stained glass panels will eventually grace the windows behind the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in St. Bede's Chapel to our Lady, the windows in the Noah's Ark Space, the front doors and in Holy Innocents Hall.  Close your eyes and imagine what it will all look like...beautiful.  Can't wait...but wait we must.

Waiting is part and parcel to the human condition.  We wait to be born.  We wait til we are old enough to drive, to go on dates and to go away to college.  We wait for our turn to speak, for our go at a game, we even wait in line to receive the sacred gifts of Jesus' body and blood at our Liturgy.  Wait we must, for very little comes to us immediately, aside from  

God's grace and unconditional love.  Waiting, ideally speaking, should teach us patience, tolerance and ultimately acceptance.  Sadly, there are those among us who find waiting nerve wracking, intolerable and simply unacceptable. 

Yet again, the world looks wearily and sadly upon our country as we encounter another horrific mass shooting, this time in one of the nation's historical and renowned houses of worship.  The lineage of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is both rich and troubled.  "Mother Emanuel Church," as it is so often referred to is considered one of the "cradle churches" for the African American community and a bastion of strength and direction in the struggles for freedom and civil rights.  It has been the victim of attack in the past and yet, like the mythical Phoenix, this church, too, has risen from the ashes of hatred, racism and intolerance many times in her illustrious and sacred past.  The senseless, ruthless and diabolical attack on this house of worship and members of her congregation, gathered in prayer no less, is another blow to our collective gut.  We are all stunned, left breathless and speechless.  I have found myself weeping when I read the names and see the faces of those who were slain.  My sorrow is laced with anger, confusion and yes, pity, when I see the face of the young man who carried out this attack.  Why?  How?  Again?   

A few of my relatives who live in Europe and Canada emailed and Facebooked me, all asking why is gun violence so prevalent and seemingly without check in the U.S.A?  I had no real answers to provide.  There are strong voices all wanting to be heard, speaking one over the other to this question of guns and violence.  I don't think any one is really listening, that is, some choose not to listen while others choose selective hearing.  Then again, God does see what we do.  God can hear our prayers and knows of our confidence in Him.   God has given us direction and guidance on how we are to treat one another.  God sent us Jesus, His only Son to be our compass and guide, the One who rewrote the old law and both ushered in and lived out the New Law: to love one another as He has loved us. Forgive one another as we wish to be forgiven.  But and still...we wait.  We wait for that time when the words of the Psalmist come to fruition, when "swords shall be turned into plowshares and spears shall be turned into pruning hooks.  One nation shall not raise the sword against another nor shall they train for war again."  I pray, we all pray that as we wait, we truly become a nation of peace makers and learn, embrace and ultimately achieve unconditional and uncompromising love for all God's children. 

Amen. 

-Manny  

For all our St. Nicholas community members who are under the weather and in need of healing and prayers:  may they find peace and be blessed with sound and better health:  Holly, Karen, Sharon, Jill, Vernon, Connie Nicholson, Marcia Kizior, Joanne Mangiaracina, Fran Baylor, Kesha, Mary Gans, Eunice Dohra, K.C., Emily & Dick Day, Dale Rickey,  Stanko Begonja, Phil Cooper, Tim Laughlin, Jackie, Chris, Cathy Walters, Carrie, Tim, Pat, Lenny, Perry, Kathy J. and any one else in need of our continued prayers and well wishes.