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Rector’s Reflection: Keep Watch
Since moving to North Stamford last month, I’ve loved seeing the stars again.
Heidi and I walked outside on Sunday night and I couldn’t help but exclaim, “Wow! Look at those stars. I missed them in Atlanta.”
On Monday night, I even lugged my camera and tripod to the New Church, hoping to capture the night sky. Between long-shutter exposures, I thought of the prophet Isaiah’s promise: “Look at the night skies: Who do you think made all this? Who marches this army of stars out each night, counts them off, calls each by name — so magnificent! so powerful! — and never overlooks a single one?” (MSG)
It's a reminder that we are all saints in God’s dream!
As All Saints Day approaches, I’ve been thinking about how we are living in a time when we all need to be saints — turning our prayers into peace and hope with our hands, our feet, and our hearts. Beneath those stars, I found myself holding in prayer the families across our nation who risk losing access to federal food assistance, our immigrant neighbors living in fear of being taken under those stars, and every child of God who gazes at the night sky with hunger, hope, or heartbreak.
In the quiet, I turned to the “Keep Watch” prayer from the Book of Common Prayer’s Compline service:
Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen.
That phrase — “shield the joyous” — always catches me. As a joyous person, I wrestle with it. Does it mean that even moments of joy need protection in this uncertain and confusing times. Among the chances and changes of life, our greatest joy is found in the mysterious embrace of our Creator, and in how we extend that embrace to others, honoring the saints before us. To make sure our friends and neighbors who live with hurt or in fear right now — all saints — know they are seen by our living God like the brightest sky in the night, never to be abandoned or overlooked.
So this week, I invite you to join me in praying Compline’s night prayer before bed.
Let’s keep watch — together.
Joe+
You may contact Joe by phone - (860) 710-1515 or email - JRose@stfrancisstamford.org. Please note that Monday is his well deserved day off!
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