St. Gregory, Pray for us!

It was good to read in today’s Office of Readings that St. Gregory the Great felt pushed, pulled, and distracted at times. I am certainly feeling it. Gregory, you might say, has been looking after me for a good while. I was ordained an Episcopal priest on his day in the Episcopal calendar – March 12. And we named our first son Aidan Gregory. The Venerable Bede reports a wonderful tale about the incident which inspired him to send Augustine to England as a missionary. Seeing some slaves for sale in Rome, he was told they were Angles. “Not Angles,” he is reported to have responded, “but Angels.” Bede also records the wisdom, focus, and tolerance with which he inspired his missionary work.
In this week before we offer our first Anglican Use Liturgy of the Word and a presentation about the Catholic faith, I am feeling overwhelmed. Its not that we aren’t prepared, it is simply that I am feeling overwhelmed by all the other work that must be done this fall and I am feeling like I cannot do any of it well enough. But in this crucible of work and prayer, I believe the Holy Spirit is at work. I am no longer praying for success, but that we will be worthy and useful for the work Christ is doing to heal his Church and save souls. Ego driven success would be a failure. But a worthy sacrifice could be a success if Christ can made use of it.
Most of Christ’s work is being done in secret, heart to heart, in his relationships with prayerful souls and people who are needy and hurting. We are not privy to that. But the Holy Spirit can direct souls to catch a glimpse of an ad in the paper, hear about us from a friend, or read about us in The Key or on the internet. If he finds us worthy of assisting him in bringing people home to Christ in his Church, then we will be here to welcome them.
St. Gregory, St. Therese, and Our Lady of Hope pray for us. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.