Thinking About October

For baseball fans, April and May are months to start thinking about October. Most Phoenicians know this feeling as well. Baseball fans wonder if our team will make the playoffs, and Phoenicians begin looking forward to cooler temperatures.

So, I’d like to ask you all to think about October today. Friday, October 7, through Sunday, October 9, we’re having our annual parish retreat in Prescott. It will be a time for worship, prayer, rest, and fun.

We’re especially blessed this year to have pastor and author Tom Ashbrook as our featured speaker. Dr. Ashbrook has spent most of his ministry working on spiritual formation, and his well-received book, Mansions of the Heart (with a foreword by Eugene Peterson!) is a modern application of St. Teresa of Avila’s The Interior Castle. Dallas Willard often said that he learned more about the human soul from Teresa than from anyone else, and Dr. Ashbrook’s book mines the depths of Teresa’s profound insights, but in a way that is accessible to 21st century Americans.

I’m looking forward to walking with each one of you through the seven “mansions” of St. Teresa’s interior castle as we seek to be mature disciples of Jesus, open to all that God has for us, and, through us, to the world.

This time of year baseball fans often say, “It’s a long way to October,” but it will be here before we know it. Save the date now, then, for our retreat. More information will come soon!

Peace,

Chris