"Our diverse places of exile"

"For when by heavenly mercy we arrive by our various roads
at the homeland for which we now sigh,
we will rejoice all the more that we have been called back
from our diverse places of exile and now come together."

-- Anselm of Canterbury, letter to Henry, a monk of Bec, c. 1070

Now Anselm is talking about heaven, as he so often did, not about Sewanee (aka God's Holy Mountain [aka Anglican Disneyland]). But he is also talking about friendship: the sorrow of friends when they are apart, and the marvelous joy of friends when they are reunited.

At Tuesday's Eucharist, the celebrant prayed, "Remember those of our number who are grieved that they cannot be among us, and those whose absence we grieve." So many times during the week I thought "I would have loved to see the look on his face when that happened" or "I wish I could have talked with her about that bit."

There was the sorrow of friends when they are apart. May God call them all back next year from their places of exile.

But there was also the marvelous joy of friends when they are reunited. Our last time together was in 2019, and there was such a joyous, buoyant spirit. And when, at Friday's Evensong rehearsal, we received the news that masks were no longer required, the light from 120 unveiled faces said perhaps even more than the cheering did.

It was a great week, a week of friends reunited -- or united for the first time -- in their love of Christ and of the music of his Church: weeping with those who weep, rejoicing with those who rejoice (on a purely personal note, I was genuinely touched by the sincerity of the congratulations I received on my new job), and (this may be the best part) laughing with those who laugh.

For all my friends, new and old, present and absent, I pray that the grace of our worship, study, learning, and fellowship will continue to sustain us even as we adjust to the sometimes jarring reality of life off the mountain. May heavenly mercy call us back to the mountain in the fullness of time and grant us the marvelous joy of reunited friends.