Author: johnpmcginty

A native of the North Shore of Boston, I currently live on Long Island, New York. I worked at Boston College as the Acting Director of The Church in the 21st Century Center until August, 2010 and served until November 2016 as Canon for Formation, and Dean of the George Mercer Jr. School of Theology of the Diocese of Long Island. I am now Rector at the Church of Saint Anselm of Canterbury in Shoreham, New York.

First Morning

There are many first mornings

You come to learn.

First morning of school

Of Summer

Of a new friendship

Of marriage

Of illness and of recovery.

First light too,

Comes first, and oddly comes again and again across the years.

And a voice says, “Begin here. Here now.

Do not live in the past; that you’ve already done.

Recall it savor it regret it celebrate it,

But do not live in it.

For today is the first day. See the first light of this first morning?

It is unlike any first morning I have made before.

The light plays in ways it has learned in playing first mornings before.

Today I make a new way for you.

Walk in it willingly, I tell you it will

Feed you

Comfort you

Surprise you

Teach you

Change you

Make and break you

Heal you

Kill you

Rebirth you forever.

It all comes from me, so

Trust it

Accept it

Revel in it

From this present into the future

See the first light

Of the first morning, always.

You cannot possess it

Nor can you lose it,

You can allow it to wash

Over you and in you and through you.

Do you not perceive it?

I make all things. Only. New.”

Job’s Pond @ Bethany Cottage

Portland CT

11.4.19

Meeting Job Again

Two canines and one human

Arrive at Job’s Pond at night

For the night. The darkness is deep

The silence, deeper; the house, empty

The water, unseen; the air, cold

The dogs, hungry; the human,

Full of wondering.

To Life

Living God,

For the simple fact of life, thank you. Just for being alive at all, even for an instant. Whatever be the joys and sorrows, the exaltations and the pains, thank you for life. It might not have been.

Without it we’d never know love, never look into a beloved face, never know what it means to commit to a cause, to falter and recover, to laugh out loud until it hurts. Without life we’d never meet a hummingbird face to face, snuggle with a pup, make an ice cream sundae for a child.

With life, what isn’t possible?

Life is a share in yours and once given, is given forever. It will take an eternity to begin to say thank you.

We can at least begin. Thank you.

Amen.