Stories are important. The whole of our lives are a story written in episodes. We listen to the story of God in Scripture, and we write the story of the Gospel through our life as a disciple of Jesus today.

Once a chapter of life we have cherished is over, we often long for a retelling. We can reread it in memory; but we will never relive it in the same way again - it becomes part of our history in the unfolding story of our life.

These last few months have been a time of listening to the story of St. Johns and tracing the path it has followed to where we have reached today; it has also been a time of listening to the hopes and aspirations for our future as we look forward from here.