The Great Hunger

[Gavin_ 2027]

 

[!] Missives are sent throughout Canondom, pinned to boards and posts [!]

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The Great Hunger

 

 

Authored by Father Gavin, 

14th of Godfrey’s Triumph.

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The duty of the farmer is to provide, that our bodies might be nourished. The duty of the priest is to provide, that our souls might be nourished. Without sustenance, Man dies. Without virtue, Spirit dies.

 

 

 

 

I write to you with trembling hands, dear Brothers and Sisters. My heart is weighed down by the sorrows that engulf our lands and our homes. War and Death sweeps across the threshold of Man, burning like a ravenous fire - all consuming. The cries of the wounded are lifted on high, so powerful are their wails and so deep, their wounds. Many go hungry and many more soon will follow. As famine begins to rear its head, we look to the tillers of soil, the humble farmer, that they might produce bread for the famished to eat and be well. 

 

 

May GOD bless those who toil in the fields to sustain the bodies of the needy

 

 

Though I am in the youth of my priesthood, I understand with clarity that our calling as shepherds is not to hoist one banner over another, but to guide our flock to GOD, to lead them down the Holy and virtuous path. I humbly beseech my fellow Brothers and Sisters who have taken up the cloth, put down the sword - The sword of factionalism that cuts deeply into the unity of Canondom, we are not the levymen of Princes but the Knights of Heaven and it is GOD’s banner that we flock to, as his servants.

 

 

What good comes from one sides’ triumph if we surrender our souls?  What comfort shall we have  in vanquishing our enemy if we lose our own hearts to fury and hate? The war that rages on outside the warmth of our hearths is a reflection of a greater war within, and it is a war for our very souls - one that will not be won by steel, but through faith, through mercy and through love.

 

 

Our flock hungers for bread, and so we must give what we have to nourish them. But they hunger also for meaning, for purpose and for a peace that no army can bring and so it befalls us, as shepherds, to lead our flocks to that calm spring of the sweet water. When our door is visited upon by the weary and the broken, we must not speak words that inflame but words that soothe their spirits and mend their hearts.

 

 

The path forward is not one of ease but if we are to suffer, let it be for righteousness’ sake. Let us hold fast to our callings as Priests, not Partisans. Shepherds, not Soldiers, and may GOD above be our strength and our source of nourishment in this time of Great Hunger.

 

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Signed,

Father Gavin.