The following is a message from the Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates, which appeared in the Sept. 13 consecration liturgy booklet.
A French proverb attributed to Jean Massieu says that “Gratitude is the memory of the heart.”
My heart is full of recent memories of the untold hours offered by those who have prepared today’s celebration for us all – liturgists, musicians, stage builders, flower arrangers, leaflet preparers, and so many more, whose efforts have transformed a weekend morning at the arena into sacred space and time.
Other memories encompass twenty-seven years of parish ministry and all those parishioners and colleagues who by their forbearance, trust, and faithfulness have been agents of grace and priestly formation in my life.
A lifetime of memories calls up grandparents, parents, siblings, and – for the past thirty-four years – a life partner and sons whose patience, companionship, and unconditional love are a blessing beyond deserving.
And now, new memories are already being created by the daily experience of a diocesan community committed to justice and peace, to caring for one another, to making manifest the Body of Christ in eastern Massachusetts and beyond.
If gratitude is the memory of the heart, then my heart is overflowing with thankfulness. I thank you. I thank God for you.
+Alan
Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to God from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever.
~ Ephesians 3:20, 21
Whereas, if the heart be moved,
Although the verse be somewhat scant,
God doth supply the want;
As when the heart says, sighing to be approved,
‘O could I love!’ and stops, God writeth, ‘Loved.’
~ George Herbert, A True Hymn