FEBRUARY 2026

Dear Kind and Gentle People,

Oh My Soul! Here at “The Mill” it is frightfully frigid outside and quite pleasant inside. I am grateful that we have no frozen pipes and dead car batteries, although my trusty 21-year-old “Krack II mobile” was loathe to start this morning as I needed to check our food cupboard. With Valentines Day upon us, “Designs by Pierre” has Mr. Moose gussied up in his valentine earrings, and a valentine cookie cutter wreath adorns the Peace Porch door.

Our lectionary readings for Sunday February 1, 2026 contain ancient messages that are more than appropriate for the times we live in. (My dear tender readers know what I mean.) If you are not a lectionary person, here they are so you can look them up: Micah 6:1-8, Psalm 15, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Matthew 5:1-12.

Here is a wonderful justice-seeking hymn from the new collection “Then Let Us SING!” by the United Church of Canada. In “Forgive Us Lord” — also known as “Let Justice Flow Like a River” — the saints of God are not superheroes. They are people who walk humbly, love stubbornly, and keep choosing justice and mercy even when it costs them something. That’s why Paul reminds us that our hope is not in our strength, but in Christ. And that’s why the Beatitudes are good news—not because suffering is good, but because God meets, blesses, and sends us from there.

So today, hear this invitation:

• Do justice—not someday, but in the choices you make, the voices you amplify, the systems you challenge.
• Love kindness—not as sentiment, but as action.
• Walk humbly remembering that God is God, and we are not, and that grace is always a gift.
• Hunger and thirst for righteousness—let it shape your prayers, priorities, politics, and compassion.
• Be peacemakers—not by avoiding conflict, but by refusing to let violence have the last word.

And when the world calls this foolish, when it resists, when it pushes back, remember the cross.

Remember that God’s greatest act of love looked like failure before it looked like resurrection. May we be strengthened by the Holy Spirit to be witnesses to love and devote our lives to nonviolence and mending the world. May we be the saints God calls us to be for the sake of Christ, and for the life of the world.

As Always,

Gobs of Blessings and Heaps of Happiness,

Petah

Rev. Dr. Peter Stickney

— Photos by Petah