The longtime pastor at my church retired a few years ago. The new pastor is a wonderful man I’ve grown fond of and close to. The old pastor still occasionally says mass. Two weeks ago, his homily struck me with a force that rarely occurs to me. Short on deep theology but long on meaning, I asked him for a copy–which I’ve posted below. I think the homily was especially meaningful as I move through an increasingly stressful and busy season of life. I am obsessed with the idea of simplifying (in everything), but I nonetheless continue to overcomplicate life…as time marches on. Here’s the text of the homily: “Tis a Blessing to Be Simple” At about the time America was becoming a nation, a small religious movement, the Shakers, was coming to these shores. If you know about the Shakers, you may feel some of their ideas were odd. But they got one thing very right; they believed in being simple. They produced furniture that is still imitated today because of its elegant simplicity. So, too, with their poetry and their music; they had a genius for finding the beauty that dwells in simplicity. The hymn for which they…Continue reading An Independence Day homily on simplicity and eternity