Pray for the Renewal

From the Desk of Father David

Dear Friends in Christ,

             I would like to discuss the Road of Renewal.  For our area not much is happening; on the Diocesan side they are working hard to figure out where priests will be assigned and who will be the Moderator/Pastor for the Family of Parishes.  I hope all of you are frequently praying to the Holy Spirit to guide all those making decisions.  In June, meetings will begin with all the representatives from each of the parishes.  When we have a complete list of our representatives, it will appear in the bulletin so you can give them your ideas. 

This week’s Gospel gives us the greatest answer to how we should respond to the Road to Renewal.  The night before Jesus died, He wanted to strengthen His disciples’ faith, because He knew the next day when they saw His body cruelly tortured and hanging on the cross, He didn’t want them to give in to their strong feelings of hopelessness, grief, and that they had wasted their lives following Him.  Therefore, He said to them “Do not be afraid, you have faith in God, have faith also in me… I am going to go and prepare a place for you.”  In other words, He was telling them, you are going to have to witness terrible events, but faith is telling you great unseen events are happening.   We see that Jesus’ prayer time in the garden, strengthened His trust in God the Father and enabled Him throughout His whole passion to keep on loving and caring about others.  As He was dying He prayed for those who nailed Him to the cross. 

Let us follow His example and have faith that God is going to bring goodness out of this process.  Our response, like Jesus’ response, needs to be loving towards everyone. Our goal is not to get what we want, but to do what God wants us to do, because God knows our needs and what the Church needs to become strong and healthy again.  He wants to fulfill all of our needs and even some of our dreams and hopes.  For this to happen we need to pray frequently for His guidance and follow His lead.

May the Holy Spirit set our heart on fire with Divine Love.  May this fire guide us in the days and weeks ahead, keep away from us any form of darkness and keep us loving in all situations.  Amen.

In Christ’s peace,

Fr. David