July brought the 99th FOCA Convention to Archangel Michael, a joyful celebration led by His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America; His Eminence Archbishop Daniel, our diocesan hierarch; and His Grace Bishop Gerasim. Just one day before arriving at our parish, Bishop Gerasim had been elected as the new diocesan bishop of the Diocese of the South, making his visit especially meaningful.
The sermon delivered by His Grace Bishop Gerasim focused on our call to serve. His Grace’s sermon stayed with me after the Divine Liturgy and unexpectedly connected to a prayer in a book I found while cleaning out a cupboard. This book was given to my mother of blessed memory by a dear friend in 1976. In Bless This Mess and Other Prayers, Jo Carr and Imogene Sorley invite readers to bring every emotion before God with honesty, humility, and hope.
Why me, Lord?
Here I am.
“In the thick of things.”
Once I wasn’t.
Someday I won’t be.
But here, now, I am.
Right in the middle of a strange, mixed-up world.
And with this nagging awareness within me
That you want me
to do something
or say something
or be something
that shall make a difference.
It may not change the course of history –
this that you want me to say or do or be-
but it may change the course of some life.
Mine?
His?
Hers?
Theirs?
And I am obligated to respond to thy call
on behalf of all mankind.
Why me, Lord?
I don’t know why. I only know the unrest, the divine discontent, the eagerness on one hand to charge off in knightly splendor
in service for thee,
And the agony on the other of not knowing in what direction.
Why me, Lord?
And what, what would you have me do?
Amen.
In Christ,
Darlene
