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Go out into the world in peace
A benediction
Go out into the world in peace. Have courage. Hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the fainthearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit. — Reverend Karen Stokes, Montclair Presbyterian Church
For a couple of years when the kids were little, we attended Montclair Presbyterian Church near our home in the Oakland foothills. “We” being me, B., and our two children Bo and Nina. B. and I were both lapsed Catholics, he of the Italian persuasion, I of the Irish, but I had the more visceral reaction to God-talk of any kind. The second the word entered the scene, my heart took a dive. I became stressed, brittle, annoyed, upset.
Why that is so may be interesting to consider. Why so strong, why so visceral?
When my mom died from the drink at 59, my dad intoned at the table where we’d gathered for a meal after the service, “The Catholic Church killed your mother.” It was a shock. My father wasn’t given to making dramatic or hyperbolic statements of any kind. Later, when I asked him about it, he claimed he never said it. But there was a gravitas, a certainty to what he said, that was profound. It etched itself in my memory.
