November 2021: Editorial

The Scriptures teach that God creates and recreates, renews and makes new out of the same spirit of love that originally brought us into being. We see this renewing power at work as seasons change. The leaves fall, darkness gathers, and the earth grows cold until in springtime we see that what appeared to die begins a new life and yet not the same as the old because like human fingerprints no two leaves are exactly alike. The message of nature reinforces the truth in Christ that God, not death has the last word. At a time of year when we commemorate the faithful departed, our loved ones and all who have died; the falling leaves appear to reflect our feelings of loss, of something coming to an end. We cannot yet see the new dawn that awaits.

St Paul wrote that, No eye has seen nor ear heard the great things God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor 2:9). May our loved ones and all of the dead experience those great things as we thank God for their lives and pray for their eternal happiness during the November days.

The leaves are falling, falling as from far,

As though above were withering farthest gardens;

They fall with a denying attitude.

And night by night, down into solitude,

The heavy earth falls far from every star.

We are all falling. This hand’s falling too –

All have this falling-sickness none withstands.

And yet there’s One whose gently-holding hands

The universal falling can’t fall through.

from ‘Autumn’ by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

Paul Clayton-Lea