1 Cor 1: 1-3
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
The Art of Saying Hello
One way my prison ministry has seemed like a step back in time is the care I’ve seen men give to the fading art of handwritten correspondence. Who doesn’t like to get a letter? We enjoy receiving and savoring them, and I’ve seen many guys hang favorites up in their cells. How to send a good letter is also important to them. I’ve been asked for dictionaries, thesauruses and even love poetry: anything that might help a letter to feel more special for its recipient.
St. Paul takes a great deal of care himself in writing to his Corinthian friends. He wants them to know that while he may not be one of the original apostles, his voice matters because he too has been chosen by God. He encourages his readers to contrast God’s church—a good thing— with Corinth, which was sort of the Las Vegas of the ancient world. Which one is influencing the other more? And the wish for “grace and peace” is a typical Pauline greeting, used in five other letters. Since God’s grace is the source of our peace, it seems a nice way to say hello!
How we greet one another means a lot. Are there ways in which we could be better hello sayers, and more joyfully communicate to people the grace and peace of our Christian faith?
—Fr. Joe Kraemer, SJ, is a priest of the West Province who was ordained at the Church of the Gesu in Milwaukee last June. He currently resides and works in Seattle, Washington.
Prayer
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and the crotchety –
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light –
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.
—”Why I Wake Early” by Mary Oliver