Having watched stoplights here in Boston and people running red lights like they don’t exist, I am not under the illusion that the solution to the world’s problems would be if we could control time.

And yet, as people of faith we live in space where we are able to stop.

On this All Souls Day, even as our hearts are heavy with grief, we remember with joy the faithful departed. We read their names aloud, entrusting them one by one to God’s eternal love and care.

It’s like we’re eating while we’re driving: Filet-O-Fish in hand, working the steering wheel with a knee and realizing suddenly we have to slam our brakes. And, when we do, the fry we had just squirted with ketchup breaks in half, the heavier, ketchup side falling right on our shirt – bloop. And, man, we are maaadddd as double-hockey-sticks.

In 2025 as always, God calls us to love one another as God loves us, within these sacred walls and well beyond them.

St. Francis loved to laugh; and so, his laughter was infectious. Those around him were infected by his joy of finding access to God in the strangest places. So, Francis kisses the hand of the leper. Here is why Francis should be seen as a saint. He is a saint not because he does something most of us would be repulsed by but because he was seeking God beyond his capacity to know God.

Trinity Church in the City of Boston The Rev. Morgan S. Allen September 15, 2024 Proper 20 (Year B): Mark

Trinity Church in the City of Boston The Rev. Morgan S. Allen September 15, 2024 Proper 19 (Year B): Mark

Trinity Church in the City of Boston Proper 18, Year A September 8, 2024 Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23 Psalm 125