Good morning and happy Saturday, Friends & Refugees, Early Birds & Late Dayers, Misfits & PHAM, WSN Contributors & ADD Irregulars, all you digital neighbors at Locals, Substack, and beyond! Yesterday was a day of church: morning Mass, a funeral later in the morning, and a wedding in the afternoon. It was a lot of worship and praying, and a day exceptionally well spent.

I love our morning Mass crew. They get a daily dose of Padre, and because of that, they get saturated by my spirituality and personality more than most. God help them! But much better than anything I will ever do or say, they get to drink more deeply of the richness of Christ. Bonus Jesus and His Paschal Mystery is hard to beat. So many worshippers just swim at the surface, think that's all there is, and judge Christianity as lacking depth. You know nothing, Jon Snow!

Only mature faith seeking greater understanding will lead us to the depths of the Divine. If you are a Catholic, you not only have the richness of Scripture, but you also believe that God is revealing His truth and His Presence through Sacred Tradition and even the shepherds of the community. I love our daily Mass worshippers. I love that they want to make worship and community a vital part of their morning.  I am so blessed.

They get that worship is about God, but it is for us. God doesn’t need it, but we do. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes of all time, and it is from St. Irenaeus: "For, as much as God is in want of nothing, so much does man stand in need of fellowship with God. For this is the glory of man, to continue and remain permanently in God’s service."

Enough preachiness for a Saturday morning—does this count for Sunday? Probably not, but sometimes I slip into default mode in my musings. You don’t know how often I get asked that question when weddings are on Saturdays. I handle it with my usual humor and dash of smart-assery, but I don’t know how to answer, "How little can we give to God and still have it be okay?" Good luck! Anyway, a prayer and photo, and then off to the rest of Saturday.

MIDWIFE TO MIRACLES

Knee-deep in dusty barnyard straw or snow on
craggy hillsides, we sing your midwife praises,
Loving Creator, as life renews itself in the cycle of your seasons.
Piglets, smooth as velvet and pink as pearls;
fuzzy lambs bleating with astonishment at finding themselves in my arms;
calves all legs and nuzzling faces; and colts taking first steps,
stumbling toward the milky prize.
You’ve called us to tend them, blessing them as you bless us.

MARGARET ANNE HUFFMAN

Happy Lambs - Liam Read - Unsplash