Romans 1:11-12

For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

I need you.

I need all of you.

I need to worship

with you.

I need you next to me.

I need you to sing.

I need you to lift your arms

and praise the Lord God Almighty.

I need to pray with you.

I need to hold your hands.

I need to feel the heat

of prayer racing through

my body as the presence

of God fills the room.

I need to feel that prayer

until the heat becomes a chill,

a buzz, a shock that makes

every part of me shiver.

I need you in the silence too.

I need you to sit next to me.

I need to know simply that you believe

as I believe and that you too get chills sometimes

as the priest reads through the liturgy,

that you too cry sometimes and gasp

because God’s presence is so overwhelming

your spirit cannot contain it.

I need to worship with you

and not just on Sundays.

I want to stumble through life

with you.

I want to look at you and know

that you know that God is there,

that He will pick me up,

that He will pick you up,

that He can lift the world

to new heights of glory and grace.

I want to share the word

of the Lord with you,

because that word is LOVE

and that word is HOPE

and that word is HEALING,

all immeasurable and infinite

and lasting.

O, how I need you, my brothers and sisters.

O, how I miss you, and long for us

to worship together again.

Amen.