From the Rector
The Eve
of Turning 50
In two days I turn 50 years old. Yes, the “BIG 5-0.” On May 10, 1963 I was born in The Christ
Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio to Judy and Bruce Pendleton. My older sister by
one year Terri greeted me at home, and my younger sister Mindy came along two
years later. My parents are no longer with us, having passed away three years
ago, but I as turn a half-century in years, I cannot help but think of them.
Yet I will celebrate the fullness of the day with my wife, son and daughter and
a few good friends in Hartford over a good meal.
One of my favorite writers Frederick Buechner wrote this
about life:
“If I were called
upon to state in a few words the essence of everything I was trying to say both
as a novelist and as a preacher it would be something like this: Listen to your
life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of
it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to
the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are
key moments, and life itself is grace.”
So as I hit the
mid-century mark tomorrow, I will be listening to my life as I drive to Hartford
from upstate New York after picking my son up from college. I will listen to
the faces of the people who shaped me. I will remember the sounds of my parents
and savor the great tasting Polish noodles and potato pancakes of my
grandmother. I will hear again to the places in the world I have visited and
the people I have met along they way. I will return to that beach in South
America when Christ grabbed me by the mystical arm and I heard so clearly and
so surprisingly: “I want you to follow me and be ordained in my church.” I will see to the people of prayer in
whose parishes I have served in my 22 years of ministry.
Buechner is right: all
moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.
Peace,
Mark B. Pendleton
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