From the Rector
September 2010
When I woke up on the first morning after returning from vacation, I was concerned because the sky was so much darker than it had been while we were away in Maine. I quickly realized that we are farther West in McLean where the sun is rising about forty-five minutes later than it did in Castine. Within a day or two, I was used to the change, and now I really don’t notice anything unusual about the light in the morning.
This observation has a parallel in my understanding of religious experience. Encountering God takes us to a different place where we notice something different about what often simply fails to catch our attention. It is easy to grow accustomed to life as it is, and God can draw us into a different place where the routine is transformed into the extraordinary.
When this change happens, I have discovered a new sense that the values I often seem to live by (success, power, prestige, for example) are overtaken by the values marked by compassion or sacrifice or gratitude. When I am overcome by discouragement, I find God offering hope. When I walk by the beggar on the street, God will not let me forget the poor or the oppressed.
I mention this because our return in September to what we call the program year has at its core the hope of irresistibly taking us to a different place in our encounters with God. I look forward to our journey together.
—Edward O. Miller, Jr.
