Sometimes, I get caught up in planning, parish planning, personal planning, assuming, presuming it does depend on me, and others like me. It does not. Not in the parish, not in the church, not in my life, not in yours. It depends all only and solely of God, through the salvation and grace of his son, Jesus Christ, and the strength and power of the Holy Spirit.

We do not of course, just sit, but we do not plan, as people use that word. We pray, we perceive, we ask, we find out what God would have us do and be and become, and we respond. Looking ahead, yes, making provisions, of course, but not Planning, not in any decisive and self-sufficient way. We respond to the plan of salvation, which was from before time and forever, and not of our devising, no matter how devout or devoted we are.

What a day this is to stop and admit and acknowledge and accept that, in joyful obedience to our Lord, and in faith and fidelity to one another in the Holy Catholic Church.

I fretted about today. I had failed in so many ways, some my fault, some not. I was too late ordering the Sunday School curriculum, it did not arrive in time. I have had to ask, thanks heavens actually that the teachers speak to their students from the heart, from their faith.

We had planned to have some representatives of the Police and Fires Department, but with many going to Louisiana and Mississippi, and many suddenly committed here in challenging and demanding ways they had not anticipated, that had to be canceled with their regrets. The children worked hard to make cards for them; I will deliver to the stations myself, which may be an even better gesture of how much we all here appreciate them.

I fretted about what direction and focus the Mass should have. It is the 4th Commemoration of the heartache and heroism of 9/11. And now, it is the Mass offered to God in the midst of the worst natural disaster our people have even known. And then today comes at a time of great worry and concern and even fear for our parish and its life and survival, its mission and ministry and on-going witness. It comes on the first day of the new Sunday School and Youth Group ministry - with caring teachers and with the excitement and enthusiasm of our youngest Christians, who are God's special delight.

And it falls on the Sunday nearest the Church's celebration of the Nativity St Mary the Virgin, Blessed Mother of our Lord, and Hope of all Christians.

Oh my, my, my how to bring it all together! But then, a bit late, I saw the truth - it has been brought all together, long since, and not by me, and not by you. By Mary, by her example, her aid, her prayers, her compassion and mercy. She gathers it up together, as she always has, presents to her Son with a glory and a grace and an access that we could never match or even approach, and she assists us daily, weekly, yearly, through all disasters and through all joys; The Joyful Mother, the Sorrowful Mother, the Glorious Mother - she has seen it all, lived it all, loves it all, and presents it all to her Son and her God in a way and a power and a grace that surpasses all that our minds can fathom, surpasses all that we desire or deserve.

Above all, as Mary continues to pray and labor on our behalf, she reminds us that it has all really all been done for us, by her Son. And she shows us and encourages us and assists in conforming our lives to him and to our God, as she did, though without sin or doubt or failure. Though not, you will remember, without suffering.

She knows human, man-made disaster. With a child, the Savior, a few days old, she fled for her life to the border, to find refuge in Egypt, far more promising at that time than The Land of Promise, which was then under the heel of the depot and madman and great terrorist, Herod, who was intent on slaughtering all the children of Bethlehem, without compunction or conscience, to achieve his agenda, and spread his evil.

And Mary knows natural disasters - dislocation, homelessness, taking shelter however crude, wherever it is offered, on the very night of the birth of her child. She knew immediately afterward the pain of evacuating and fleeing to Egypt as she had so shortly before had to relocate from Galilee to Judea, driven from her safe and secure home in Nazareth to ride pell-mell to Bethlehem, on the verge of delivery, and on the back of a donkey within days, hours, of her labor.

And Mary is the one commend our children to. I have asked the teachers to do the best they could, in my mistake, and I realize Mary will help them, as she helps us all. And in ways beyond my imagination or ability or planning or my foolishness.

And she will guard and protect this parish, as we live and worship and serve her Son, under her special patronage, and always invoking her care and consideration, in ways parishes not dedicated to her still receive, but may sadly remain unaware of, and unacknowledged. She has no more care for us then for all the others, but surely she rejoices that we take special note of her role and give thanks faithfully for her help.

So many things about this our Mass, and our life! Mary holds it all together - love and cared of children, steadfastness in disaster, never seeking her own safety or security, and taking care of us to this day.

In every natural and unnatural disaster, in all our fears and uncertainties, in all our best but fitfully fulfilled intentions, Mary is the First Responder, or if not first, at least the best, the most faithful, the most devout, surely the most essential.

On behalf of this parish, under her patronage and protection and care, and mindful of her attention and compassion, I pledge that we will regularly, publicly, openly ask her assistance for us in the parish, for our personal needs and hurts, especially for the Children and Youth, who are her special concern, and who themselves duly remind us of Mary's chief and first duty to God - to bear and raise and train up and love his Son, given into her care.

We will faithfully and devoutly and joyfully ask her constant aid and intercession for the disaster looming before us as a parish, and for aid and assistance and hope in any and all unfolding natural disasters, that will always occur in our nation and world and for her kindness and mercy and compassion and prayers on behalf of those who seek to prevent, and to respond to man-made disasters and the cruelties of evil people, which may yet happen again.

I ask that you say the Angelus - regularly, however you are given grace to understand regularly in your life. In ancient times, it was said thrice daily, 6 am, noon, and 6 pm. I respectfully suggest that you might not start there. Once a day - and the time may well need to vary for you, or once a week - Saturday is classically a day on which Mary is widely honored and acknowledged in faithful churches.

You know you own needs, discuss them with Mary, and ask her Intercession with her Son our Lord on your behalf. She is the hope and help of Christians. It is one of the heartbreaking privations of the Protestant churches, and the more Protestant wing of our own Episcopal Church, that lonely, frightened, anxious, needy Christians, are often deprive themselves of the aid and intercessions and assistance and prayers of the Saints, especially our Lady, Queen of Heaven and Queen of Saints. This need not be. Be careful to observe the Church's teaching - we do not ask Mary, or the Saints, for divine assistance - we ask for their aid, counsel, compassion, and prayer - prayers to the Divine, the only source of miraculous assistance.

I am stunned by the number of people in my ministry who do not ask for the prayers of the Saints, even those of Mary herself, and yet ask me to pray for them. Me, instead of St Mary! It is not too modest of me to say there is no comparison. Ask her. Ask Mary. Above all.

It is our hope, our joy, our glory and our faith, to set her always before us, and to travel on in her company. I further fervently believe it is our ministry and mission and witness to the wider Church, to faithful and discouraged Christians, to an anxious and worried and hurting world and community, to neighbors, friends, strangers, above all to our children and to this parish to testify to her role in lives, in all of life. Mary will not let us go. She will not. We need not ask for that, we need only and always to ask that we remember it.

"Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of the womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death."