Let me be your servant

Last evening we shared dinner and discussion with Amber's community, Casa Pedro Arrupe, a household of 8 Jesuit Volunteers, recent college grads working on poverty level stipend in social services among the poor and disadvantaged. Prison psych ward and anti-discrimination advocacy, domestic abuse prevention, children in schools, counseling, housing advocacy, and Amber's work: refugee resettlement. https://www.jesuitvolunteers.org/default.cfm/PID=1.25

We'd been invited to share some of our experience living in intentional community, as they are now. We told them the story of our historical community, the Ark, and how that experience influenced our marriage and family. We enjoyed revisiting our past, and hope some of it was meaningful for them.

This song, which we sang in our community, in our wedding, and still sing, sums up our spiritual direction in marriage, family, and intentional community. By Richard Gillard, The Servant Song:

Beloved, let me be your servant,
let me be as Christ to you;
pray that I might have the grace to let you be my servant, too.

We are pilgrims on a journey,
we are travelers on the road;
we are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.

I will hold the Christ light for you
in the night-time of your fear;
I will hold my hand out to you, speak the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping;
when you laugh I'll laugh with you;
I will share your joy and sorrow 'til we've seen this journey through.

When we sing to God in heaven
we shall find such harmony,
born of all we've known together of Christ's love and agony.

Beloved, let me be your servant,
let me be as Christ to you;
pray that I might have the grace to let you be my servant, too.