On Generosity and Giving

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” The Letter of James 2:14-17

What am I grateful for at St. Paul’s?

by Cliff Ruprecht

Our Eucharist.

We celebrate the Eucharist a little differently in each of our services, each deeply spiritual in its own way. And truly, though many, we are one when we do so. For that, I think we can all be grateful.

But I have a personal gratitude to express. I was away from church for a very long time. No crisis. I never raised my fist to God. I wouldn’t even say I lost my faith. It was perhaps worse. I just stopped tending to my faith. And yet, God was faithful when I was not, and eventually, my ears opened again to the Spirit’s persistent murmur.

It took earthly hands to accomplish God’s work – the hands of St. Paul’s, tending to the Eucharist Christ instituted. And so, by grace, I found a table at which I was welcome, a table set by the people of St. Paul’s. For that – and for the faith St. Paul’s has kept long before I came and will keep long after I am gone – I am deeply grateful. May the faithful work of St. Paul’s always keep a place of welcome at our table for those who are absent from it.