Autumn Beginnings

Greetings to Good Shepherd’s Koinonia Pilgrims:

In North America the autumn leaves have turned to red and gold, yellow, and browns signaling their sap descending into winter’s hibernation.  However, for us at Mu Ai Tang, [Good Shepherd Church], our sap’s energy is rising as we throw ourselves into a new school year, work projects, and liturgical hopes for Advent and Christmas.

Our excitement grows between the festival of St. Francis Sunday, October 5 when we bless our brother and sister animals and Advent, November 30.  We celebrate All Saints Sunday, November 2.   Some of us will join with friends and family for America’s Thanksgiving Day on November 27. 

As we mark these days of harvest thanksgiving and the festival of Christ the King, the end of the liturgical year, November 23, our hearts rejoice in God’s many blessings and mercies. 

I encourage all of us to join in our koinonia opportunities to intimately participate in our worship and fellowship as these autumn days shorten and darken before we welcome the light of Christ into the world on Christmas Day.   Sign up to read on Sunday, bring a special food offering for our coffee hour, bring a friend to church, join special choir presentations, join the acolyte training, sing a little bolder, and share the peace with more cheer, belong, believe, and befriend in these shorter, darker, colder, wetter days of autumn and winter and let your light and spirit brighten all our world.

Love, hope, and Peace,

Father Herbert