So...I just turned 66

three days ago and the Son & his family sent me a book as a gift. Little did they know.

It's a first edition of "Hunting the Divine Fox" by The Rev. Dr. Robert Farrar Capon who is one of three authors I consider foundational in my faith journey. I initially read it some 30+ years ago, have a paperback copy somewhere and can recognize Capon fans just by the way they expound on their personal beliefs.

Fr. Capon died yesterday well into his late 80's. I would say rest in peace, Sir; but in his case it just doesn't seem fitting. For I see him welcomed into that Holy Banquet to be seated towards its head and him delighting in and relishing the wonder and magnificence of its bounty. Did I mention he had a lifelong love affair with food and cooking, was a food columnist and author and taught cooking too?
Fr. Capon's essence was captured in a piece I've saved by The Rev Jamie Howson titled "N Y Fox Hunting". The closing paragraphs of its Epilogue seem to echo my thoughts:

…So much of what calls on us is out of our control, isn’t it?

Still, if I can’t hear rumours of God in the midst of all of that – if I can’t catch even the hint of the fox’s trail as I sit by a hospital bed or daydream during a meeting or curse the heavy May snow that threatens to break the branches of the old elm tree – where will I hear them? And if I can’t find the will to pour us a glass of wine and whip up a plate of grilled shrimp on the day when we have just a brief window of time before one of us heads out the door for the evening, when will we ever live a rhythm in contrast to that of this fast-food nation? And if, as we talk together about Catherine’s grandmother’s compromised health and aging heart (both her biological and her metaphorical heart…) I can’t hear Robert’s words about aging and weakness and death - “you are always told that you will get better, you must get better, you can get better and so on… and I don’t have to…” - when will I ever hear them?

And so I stop, and recollect the things that have now become part of my horizon. “Bidden or unbidden, the fox is present.” You just need to keep the horses watered and always at the ready, so that the hunt can resume at a moment’s notice. 

 Truly, there is no longer any need for concern, Fr. Robert...You have been completed.

"Move forward in Peace, as you continue to love and serve your Lord."