Redeemer Family,
What a joy to be back in the parish and to worship together this past Sunday! From the whole Marotta family to all of you - thank you! Thank you for the gift of sabbatical rest and for the privilege of returning to shepherd such a wonderful parish. Our hearts are full with gratitude.
What follows is a brief report of our time away:
COACHING
Back in the spring, we asked our friends the Rev. Patrick and Jordan Ware to be our Sabbatical coaches. The Wares are just a bit ahead of us in life and ministry and we knew they would be wise counselors to advise us on how to best make use of this time. We met with them multiple times before leaving and then had occasional Zoom calls with them to check in throughout the Summer. Thank you Patrick and Jordan! Your advice to us was invaluable.
MONASTERY RETREAT
One of the most impactful things I did this Summer was to spend the better part of a week at Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, NY. This was absolutely essential in helping me to slow down and take stock of where I was with the Lord. The days were spent in prayer, reading, sleeping, walking and honestly not much else.
TECHNOLOGY LIMITS
When I walked out of 2715 Grove Ave. on May 28th, I stopped by the Parish House on my way home to drop off my iPhone and laptop. I did not have them with me for any part of the Summer. I used a WisePhone with a number that only family and emergency contacts had. I did not use email or the internet at all. For writing, I used a FreeWrite typewriter that does not have an internet browser. I’ve jokingly told people, when they ask where I went for Sabbatical, that I went to “the 1990’s.” It was a very low-tech Summer.
ENJOYING CREATION
A major theme for our family this Summer was enjoying the beauty of creation outdoors together. Most days involved some kind of outdoor exploration: hiking, biking, swimming, fishing, boating, ect.
One element of this that we enjoyed more than we anticipated was aligning our days more intimately with the natural world: waking up with the sunrise, going to bed with the sunset. Our days were intimately connected to the weather, the temperature, the tides, wildlife activity, etc.
FAMILY LIFE
Perhaps the most important thing that happened this Summer was that the six of us (me, Rachel, June, Selah Rose, Wills, and John) became more of a family unit. Our crew is almost always around lots of other people (which is overall a great thing!) Between church, school, sports, music lessons, and a big extended family - we are hardly ever just with the six of us. This Summer that changed and it was wonderful to have a lot of “this is us” time.
READING
I almost needed a separate suitcase for all the books. While I didn’t come close to getting through everything I planned, this is what I ended up reading:
The Second Mountain - David Brooks
The Sabbatical - Michael O'brien
Leaves, Roots, & Fruit - Nicole Johnsey Burke
Surrender - Bono
The River Why - David James Duncan
Jack: A Life of CS Lewis - George Sayer
Inferno - Dante Alighieri
The Father’s Tale - Michael O'Brien
The Advantage - Patrick Lencioni
Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation - Colin Hansen
Biblical Books: Galatians, 1 Corinthians, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, Matthew, Acts.
WHAT WE MISSED
We truly missed all of you and our life here in the city of Richmond. We missed worshiping with you on Sundays. We missed living in our neighborhood and seeing so many of you day in and day out. We missed face to face conversations over coffee. We missed the fun of Richmond in the Summer! We missed everything. Yep. That sums it up. We missed everything and are SO. GLAD. TO. BE. HOME.
LOOKING AHEAD
On Sunday, we kicked off a new sermon series for the Fall - Paradox Manifesto: a series on the beatitudes of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. I’m very much looking forward to teaching on these incredible, fascinating, comforting sayings of Jesus and to exploring their implications together. Beyond that, I’m really just very grateful for our family to re-integrate into parish life here.
Redeemer family, we love you and we missed you.
We’re so glad to be HOME with you!
In the Father’s love,
