Dear Friends in Christ,

Greetings and blessings to you and your loving families in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I hope you have been enjoying our summer weather, thereby seizing the opportunity to have a break from your normal routines to relax, slow down, smell the roses, and even have a change of atmosphere wherever the place may be.

Jean and I took a short trip round the July 4th Independence Day holidays. We paid a visit to our youngest daughter Angela who moved to Minneapolis last November. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay, visiting and meeting with some of her friends. We even worshipped at St Marks Cathedral, which is the Cathedral for the Diocese of Minnesota. The service was a bit different, but still reaffirming and spiritually uplifting.

There are many enjoyable aspects of this visit. Three of them I will refer to as highlights.

First, was our visit to a couple of their lakes in the State. Do you know there are 10,000 lakes in the State of Minnesota? Even their Car Tag Plates remind you of that. What impressed me about the lakes we visited is mostly how they are designed to be user friendly. They have clearly marked ways/paths for cyclists, strollers, and walkers. This makes walking easier with little or no disruptions. They also provide adequate parking spaces, refreshment kiosk and building, bathrooms, picnic areas and grills. We enjoyed our walks combined with sightseeing of the several activities going on along the lake. One should not forget the colorful array of different kinds of boats on the lake, as well as those spending their time fishing both on the lake and around the edges of the lake.

Second, was a visit to the largest Mall in America, called Mall of America. This place is the Mecca for shoppers. The place is so huge; I am told no one can cover the entire Mall in less than two to three days, to be able to claim they did justice to all the shops and attractions, not to mention the numerous restraurants in the place. I am not a shopper, but being in the company of three ladies who like to shop and or window shop, I was quickly tired. I resorted to my way of survival, which is find a good spot to sit, read and watch people going up and down, with their intriguing body languages and expression as they pass by. Even though we spent almost a whole day, we only covered a third of the Mall.

What is also noteworthy is that even though we talk of possible recession and  erratic economy, the Mall was bustling with people shopping, and most of them carrying several bags of purchases they have made. There were several bus loads of people from all over the place who come and spend their weekend shopping. After all, there are many hotels with attractive discounts to lure people to stay with them and shop at the Mall.

Third, and last highlight, is one of the books I took with me to read. The title of the book is “Riches for the Mind and Spirit” by John Marks Templeton. Some of you may remember that I made reference to this book in one of my sermons last year. It is very humbling to know that the author Mr. John Marks Templeton was born in a very small town called Winchester, in Tennessee, near our Episcopal University and School of Theology, Sewanee, Tennessee.

I highly recommend this book to all, especially those who love reading and want inspiration to grow spiritually. The different articles are collection of writings of wise sayings of mature and religious people who through their writing and musings have continued to contribute to valuable lessons of life. According to John Marks Templeton, much of the world’s wisdom resides in the written word. From the Bible, philosophers and poets and from them one begins to form a clear understanding of the spiritual and ethical laws of life.

Let me end this article and the rewarding highlights of my short time away, by quoting one of the powerful aspects of this book.

“One thing we learn from these wise people is that giving is a test of maturity. Those who are truly grown-up, give. The immature do not. It is wise to practice giving in every area of life. Give your feelings to others. Give money where it is needed and can truly help someone. Give attention. Give thoughtful, well- reasoned advice. If you are lonely, it’s especially helpful to give. Give by taking on charity jobs or helping with fundraising. But—most of all—give thanks to the Lord for your many blessings. As Rabindranath Tagore put it so eloquently: “I slept and dreamed that life was happiness/ I awoke and saw that life was service/ I served and found that in service happiness was found.” To pursue that thought further, the wisdom we can find in these pages teaches us that happiness does not come to us, but through us. It is a journey and not a stopping place. Achieving a goal brings less happiness than working with inspiration toward a goal. Happiness comes through the work we do, the skills we struggle so hard to develop, the love and attention we show others. We learn, too, that happiness comes directly through prayer. The term prayer can mean to trap a thought. As one traps a thought in mind, it becomes a “state of mind”………We are the end result of what we think. Our thoughts influence our words, our deeds, what other people think of us, and whether or not they want to associate with us. If we want to lead a happy and useful life, mind power becomes essential. We can make our mind a garden of indescribably beautiful flowers instead of a weed patch.

Giving, happiness, prayer, and mind power are four building blocks in the formation of a fulfilled existence on earth. I hope that this anthology can help you live in a manner that perhaps has never been better expressed than in the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Romans (12:9-18).”

May each of us continue to be abundantly blessed as we move towards the end summer 2008. Amen.

Fr. Gordon+