Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus...

  - Hebrews 12.1, 2

In the most lowly body/our strength would have been but feeble,/save that what is highest guided us:/the lofty love of the army of Jesus.

  - Oengus mac Oengobann, Feilire Oengusso (Irish, 9th century)

The life of faith is full of challenges. It is like a long-distance race that stretches on for the whole of our lives. We need endurance to be able to stay the course, resist every temptation, and press on for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.

We cannot run this race while clinging to sin or the excess baggage of this material existence. We need to set our mind on Jesus and remember that many have gone before us, often at great sacrifice, so that we could run our race today.

I don't understand Christians who have no interest in the history of the Christian movement. How can we show such ingratitude to and disrespect of those who have gone before? Their example should inspire us to lives of devotion and holiness. Their witness should move us to carry on the same in our generation. Their achievements should spur us on to ever-greater undertakings in the name of the Lord. Their written works should teach us and their works of art, music, and literature should lead us into the Lord's beauty and the deeper mysteries of our salvation.

But the strength of the saints will avail us not a whit if we choose to remain ignorant of them. Oengus wrote a devotional in verse for every day of the year, featuring one saint per day, to fill the calendar year with praise to God through remembering those who had gone before. His Feilire ("martyrology", or study of the witnesses) reminds us that we do not run our race alone. Jesus stands before us as the prize to be gained, and the saints surround His throne of glory, basking in His beauty even as they urge us on by their example and works.

I know I keep coming back to this topic in this newsletter, but it matters more than any of us really understands. We have much to learn from appreciating our forebears in the faith. Their lives and works can help us in knowing the Lord, in praising and adoring Him, and in taking up our own "leg" of the race of faith with zeal, energy, strength, and joy.

Let those who have gone before show us the way we must journey as well. If we can allow them to guide us with their "lofty love", we might just find new meaning, depth, purpose, and direction to our lives in the Lord.

T. M. Moore, Principal

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