Weekly Reflection - 4/20/2022

St. Mary's Reflection: Matt Spitzer, Vestry Member

New Gratitude for Old Blessings

As Rev. David reminded us in his sermon this Easter Sunday, it has been three long years since we were last in church together on Easter. This joyous occasion fits a pattern in my life right now, of readjusting and reacclimating in various ways. As the combination of knowledge, science and medicine provide us with better tools to cope with the ongoing circulation of SARS-CoV-2, we are each left to assess which elements of our pre-pandemic routines will once again become habitual.

This time has provided me with an opportunity to reflect and give thanks for the many blessings in my life that I had too often taken for granted before the pandemic. Some are readily apparent, such as the opportunity to gather more safely with friends and family or to travel once again. Others were once little details, such as coffee in the courtyard after church or resuming my lab’s birthday cake rotation at our weekly lab meetings. These restorative, resurrection moments, big and small, invite me to experience and express gratitude with newfound awareness and perspective.

Central to these is the important place that the St. Mary’s offers as a community for worship and fellowship. This community has helped me weather this storm in many ways for which I am very grateful. Opportunities to return to common practices, as we experienced this past Sunday, are powerful reminders to me of the essential and irreplaceable role of a community of faith in my life. These moments of gratitude also offer an opportunity for reflection. The changes around us offer both the chance to return to old blessings but also to experience and seek out new ones. How is the Holy Spirit calling me to deepen my faith life in ways for which I will be grateful in the future?

Matt Spitzer

Vestry Member