Dear Friends,

We missed you all last Sunday, as the October storm left our church in darkness and very, very cold. We hope that all of you have managed to stay warm and 'en-lightened' during the past week. Ron and I are heading off this evening to the Call to Action Conference in Milwaukee along with a number of members of The Spirit of Life Community....and two or three thousand others committed to renewing the Church! I will have the gift of participating in a panel with Fr. Roy Bourgeois and another woman from RCWP, Alta Jacko, to share on the topic: 'Confronting Sexism in the Church: Why We Need Women Priests.' We're excited and eager to be with this gathering of committed and passionate people. In our absence, Spirit of Life member, Sue Malone, will preside at a Communion Service on Sunday at 4:00PM. We will be thinking of you praying together as we fly home....inspired and fed from our time at CTA. Sue will be using the gospel from the All Saint's liturgy, the Beatitudes, and offers the following very rich quote by Natalie Goldberg for us to contemplate:

"Whether we know it or not, we transmit the presence of everyone we have ever known, as though by being in each other's presence we exchange our cells, pass on some of our life force, and then we go on carrying that other person in our body, not unlike springtime when certain plants in fields we walk through attach their seeds in the form of small burrs to our socks, our pants, our caps, as if to say "Go on, take us with you, carry us to root in another place." This is how we survive long after we are dead. This is why it is important who we become, because we pass it on."

Natalie Goldberg

from "Out of the Ordinary" by Joyce Rupp

Reminder: Beginning this Sunday, and throughout the winter, our liturgy will be held at 4:00PM....and remember too, to turn your clocks back one hour!

Our Book of Remembrance will be available throughout the month of November for us to remember and honor our loved ones who have died. We hold them in our hearts, with gratitude for all they have 'passed on' to us.

Wishing you hopeful 'becoming'!

Jean & Ron