XXXXX: Thanks for the hard copy of "Trinity News" from Trinity Church Wall Street. The Rowan Williams' article can be found on line at
http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/news/article_471.shtml
There is also a second part of that article at
http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/news/article_472.shtml

I found myself engaged from the first paragraph, as he lays out the difficulty:
       this not uncommon way of talking about vocation
       as God finding us a part to play is actually rather
       problematic: there will always be the suspicion
       that we’re not really being used, stretched, and
       so on, and a flicker of resentment at being con-
       signed to undue prominence or unjust obscurity.
I found myself wondering about the Archbishop's wondering about HIS place in history. Granted, he is the world's top Anglican, but just as American Presidents are judge in comparison with each other (and with all the terrible language being bandied about splitting the Anglican Communion) does he sense he'll be "consigned to undue prominence or unjust obscurity"?

And what a wonderful expression at the end of paragraph 4
       We are to rejoice in the fact that, weak and
       sinful and silly as we are, God has chosen us
       for the privilege of loving and serving him.
I hope we can work it into the next Crusillo weekend.

Last, and most important, I love the line:
       It is a moment of crisis, because answering the
       call to be oneself at any given moment is not at
       all easy. In spite of how it may sound, it isn’t a
       bland acceptance of the status quo in your life,
       or a license to surrender to every possible im-
       pulse.

At the request of a friend, I've begun to BLOG my newsletter articles. As I titled my BLOG, my thought raced to the corporate vocation of St. Barnabas. The blog "Magnanimity [ not Megalomania ] or Bust" (http://dmossbar.blogspot.com ) must somehow underscore Aquinas' category of courage

Aquinas cites Aristotle's understanding that "magnanimity is about honor and dishonor." For psychologists, chasing after infantile illusion of personal omnipotence or grandeur is a mental illness. Aquinas himself states that one of the objections to believing that magnanimity's connection to honor is that "honor is a concupiscible good." However, he counters that because "honor has the aspect of something great or difficult," there is no pleasure-based desire--thus no concupiscence.

And honor's difficulty is exactly what I see in Williams' quote: "...answering the call to be oneself...is not at all easy."

Difficulty is written into the Search Committee's last call for a Rector...and if it applies to the Rector, it affects the vocation of the lay leadership as well. "We need to attract, retain and assimilate new members and carry this effort into youth programs." St. Barnabas needs this, NOT because the Rector wants more money. Nor do we need this because some leaders may want to give less money to some survival level and can achieve that goal through more members making a smaller slice of the pie.

Our vocation to make disciples (Diocesan Mission Statement)--to be spiritually enhanced through outreach (Parish Mission Statement) comes from the magnanimous response to God's call and from the Holy Spirit's graceful blessing of the gift of fortitude. The Archbishop concludes:
       We have to find what is our particular way of
       playing back to God his self-sharing, self losing
       care and compassion, the love because of which
       he speaks and calls in the first place. Crises
       occur at those points where we see how un-
       reality, our selfish, self-protecting illusions, our
       struggles for cheap security, block the way
       to our answering the call to be.

Maybe my feeling of being strengthen by this article is illusional megalomania not real magnanimity. But I get to test it out each time you give me an opportunity to sharpen my wits. Thanks for today's chance.

If ya want to let Aquinas sharpen us both more, the link to his eight questions about magnanimity can be found at http://www.newadvent.org/summa/312900.htm

Shalom, David