Americans love a parade so it’s easy to understand why, no matter what your heritage, on March 17 everyone can be a little bit Irish. If you have kept up with Philadelphia’s various St. Patrick’s celebrations, from parades to pub crawls, the day is actually more than a week of merriment. I think it’s fascinating that we celebrate the fifth-century cleric who took Christianity to Ireland by drinking copious quantities of beer!

Thirty-eight years ago during a short visit to Paris, I stopped into a music store in the 18th arrondissement to visit my friend Guillaume Deslandres, a clerk at the store. Guillaume couldn’t wait to tell me the news that Notre Dame Cathedral had just completed auditions for a new organist. Twenty-three-year-old Olivier Latry had been appointed one of four “titulaire” organists, an unprecedented event in the history of the centuries-old cathedral.

Few of us take the time to do the praying, thinking, talking, and acting needed to prepare for the future. Planning for difficult times is particularly hard because it requires anticipating negative possibilities, trying to imagine uncertain, hard-to-face situations, and facing the inevitable end times of our lives. On top of this is the sheer magnitude of all the things you need to gather and do. Planning for the end of life can feel overwhelming, confusing, and even frightening. Yet, few acts are more loving and thoughtful than taking the time to plan ahead.

The smell permeates your hair, your coat, the clothes you are wearing. Like a campfire, but not quite as familiar, the smell of burnt palm fronds has an incredible ability to linger. The first time I burnt palm fronds I was in college, and another student and I were assigned to make ashes for Ash Wednesday. Neither of us had any idea what we were supposed to do. The chaplain we worked for explained, “It’s easy: Take the palm fronds we saved from last Palm Sunday, burn them, and then grind them up.” Easily said, but accomplishing the task was a little more challenging.

It’s laundry. That’s what grabs me in this image; the wash hanging out to dry on a clothesline. Dated 1927, the picture was in a collection of photographs celebrating the completion of our present Sanctuary. The camera faces the west transept that now features the Holy Spirit window. Today, part of the parking lot and the lawn in the foreground was the side yard of Converse House when it served as our manse. More than likely this was the personal laundry of the family of the Rev. Andrew Mutch, our pastor from 1912-1936.

This coming Sunday is precious in the church's calendar year – Youth Sunday and the Souper Bowl of Caring! It is the one Sunday a year when our youth lead every part of the service. From ushering to preaching, each part of the service is led by a teenager. This service is one of the ways that Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church communicates its profound value and respect for the young in our congregation, recognizing their ability and potential in worship leadership. We hope you can be here for this special service!