Dear Saints,

There’s something comforting about the cyclicality of a year. For example, the mere fact that every October 26th in New Jersey means generally cooler weather, colorful leaves, and ripe apples is itself as consoling as flannel blankets and firesides.

Of course, even as seasonal rhythm transcends the passage of time, many events and experiences are particular to a given moment. On October 26th, 740 A.D., for example, a massive earthquake struck Constantinople. On October 26th, 1529, Thomas More was appointed Lord Chancellor of England (presumably it was a happy day, with no hint of what would later befall the Saint at his best friend the King’s own hand). On October 26th, 1776, Benjamin Franklin sailed for France, seeking a crucial ally if America was to win the revolution. And before the sun set on October 26th, 1881, there would be a gunfight at the OK Corral.

We can look back on those events dispassionately; our emotions are not engaged with the tumult and trials of ages past. Yet these experiences were of profound significance to those who lived through them. The highs and lows, desperation and anticipation, terror and hope: they were as real on every October 26th gone by as they are for us today.

But God was already at Constantinople when the earthquake hit, just as he was already in England, and France, and even the Wild West. Just as he was already in today. There is not a single human experience to which he does not attend. Whatever we face on October 26, 2025 - or October 27th, or November 30th, or the whole of 2026, or the coming decade - God is the close-up, constant, unchanging presence in our ever changing world. And that is the greatest comfort of all.

Christ’s Peace,

Father Daniel

δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ