[Parish] Trinity, the Moth and the Candle

[Malcolm Young]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
 
We are blessed this spring with more beautiful clouds than I can ever remember seeing here.  They seem to come out of nowhere and to change the way everything appears to us.
 
This weekend we will celebrate Trinity Sunday – it’s the return to Ordinary Time in our church calendar and stretches all the way until we celebrate the season of Advent next winter.
 
We’ll be hearing the local priest John Buenz at the 9:00 a.m. forum for the next three Sundays.  He’ll be talking about what he calls “the emerging church.”  It should be very interesting.
 
If you would like to remember particular people for Memorial Day, please be sure to say their names out loud during the prayers of the people on Sunday.
 
Many of you may know school teachers who received termination notices this week as a result of the dire situation of our state’s budget for education.  I’d like to ask two things from you.  First, that you’ll pray for these educators and their students, and second, that if you know of someone who could be our Kindergarten teacher at Ventana next year you will let him or her know about our search.
 
Finally, a friend at Worship Lab last week asked about the trinity.  I couldn’t come up with much of an answer.  Here’s a quote that expresses how far God is beyond our understanding, and about how the reason’s thirst for God is unquenchable.
 
It’s from the Persian mystical poet Jalaludin Rumi (1207 –1273) about our passion for God…
 
“Reason is that which is ever restless and without peace day and night from thinking and worrying and trying to comprehend God, even though God is incomprehensible and beyond our understanding.  Reason is like a moth, and the Beloved like a candle.  Though the moth cast itself into the flame and burn and be destroyed, yet the true moth is such that it cannot exist without the candle, much as it may suffer from the pain of its immolation.  If there were any creature like the moth that could do without the light of the candle and that would refrain from casting itself into this light, it would not be a true moth; and if the moth should cast itself into the candle’s light and the candle not burn it, that would not be a true candle.”
 
Love,
 
Malcolm