Reflection for September 4

Back to school, back to faith

This time of year my Facebook feed is full of photos of kids headed back to school…. But back to school isn't just for kids and their parents. This time of year is an invitation to all of us to renew our learning and growth…. Too many people check out of learning about their faith.

In my time as a parish priest, I met with lots of families facing a crisis of some kind — a death, a job loss, a broken relationship, a health problem Too often, their brittle faith was shattered by the normal tragedies of human experience. And it’s no wonder. Without adult learning, we’re left to make sense of adult problems with a child’s faith. A mature faith helps us face life’s difficulties and it can even help us love difficult people. Deep faith, nourished by knowledge and inquiry, is not only more robust, but it is more vibrant. We discover new ways to praise God and more reasons to thank God (The Rev. Scott Gunn, Executive Director, Forward Movement; Read the entire piece HERE).