In college I spent a week at the Community of the Resurrection, an Anglican monastery in Mirfield, England. Staying with the monks, with their antiquated robes, marking time by an ancient calendar, pausing to bless the fields that would provide food for their table in the coming months, I felt as though I had been transported to an earlier century and a much simpler world.
It was a place where heaven and earth draw close. The monks at Mirfield understood that no human undertaking—from gardening to welcoming young adults into their community’s life—stands apart from Jesus’ promise to be present and available to his disciples, here and now.
I remembered all the reasons why Christians are a people of deep and abiding hope. Even though we cannot see God with our eyes, we know that God is deeply involved in our lives and in our world.
Today we remember Thomas Cranmer, Bishop of Canterbury, martyr (1556). This message was adapted from “Ascension Day Blessings” written by Bishop Patricia Lull that first appeared in the May 2006 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather) magazine.