I love being a Catholic – I have family in Italy that can trace their roots to the Normans, back to the legendary de Hautfield family filled with Roger II and William the Conquerer and the Count Tancredi of Sicily. The faith was always ever-present and the legends of my heritage keep us stalwart in keeping the traditions going. I love the politics. I swim in the different flavors within and without of the Church – Eastern Orders, Trad vs Vatican 2. As my old Professor of Loyala Prof Von Beeck – he said the Catholic Church is a big family with a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins who tend to squabble and fight within the family, but it IS a family. It’s belonging in a way that many people miss out on these days.

But I chose to be Lutheran. Lutheran, to me, is not a universal religion. It is a religion borne in a time of strife, when the Powers within the Church drifted too far into venial corruptions and meddled too much with the lives of its people. It was a populous response to injustice and it took on all the Great Powers of Europe and beyond. In struggle, it forge a place for itself at the Great Table.

Welcome the stranger, eh? Well, the Lutherans came to the Table unbidden and unwanted, even when it carried a flaming message of hope and change. Even when it was beloved by its people and by others.

It is a religion tempered in wars and civil unrest. It is a movement birthed in pain and an acknowledgement of that pain.

In essence, it’s perfect for these times. It will be a hard winter. Everyone knows this, but no one can prepare. We are scattered by ideology, tired from disease, weary from helping the strangers in our midsts, and we have so many plans that have been put on hold. The money and people are leaving, going elsewhere into the four winds. The children are gone. There’s only a remnant of the faith left. It is a weakened Church nearly on its knees, only with the promise that tomorrow will be worst than today. If we ever needed a miracle, like a leader such as a Martin Luther to lead us, it is now. If there was ever a place for it, it is here.

We’d probably not recognize him or hear his message. We’d cast him out like others. We are indifferent to the truth and content in our own narratives. The world that keeps slipping into chaos as we ponder and fret.

So new blood must enter the church. I am a weak vessel, but God called me to be of service. I will continue my heritage to serve God as all my ancestors have done, and as my children will do after me. We are Tancredi’s, after all – it is a family that follows God’s will whatever it may take us. This is a first step to expand our reach into a wholly new direction than where we’ve trod before.

God bless and protect.