Beloved Family:
Every other year, the priests of the diocese are convoked by the bishop, for an extended time of reflection and fellowship as a presbyterate. That convocation is being held this coming week. While not every priest is able to attend, indeed Fr. David and I will be away from the parish between Tuesday afternoon and Friday afternoon. The good people in the parish office know whom to contact, in case of pastoral emergency. In addition, while there will not be Mass here on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, there will be Communion services on those days, as well as Adoration through Wednesday night. Deacon James will lead.
What a wonderful event the Friends for Life Banquet was, last Tuesday. The keynote speaker, Sheila Walsh, originally from Scotland and one-time cohost of the 700 Club, gave a mighty powerful testimony rooted in her life experience, which includes a struggle with clinical depression and a misdiagnosis of her preborn child. Her prenatal test results were mixed up with someone else’s, and if she had listened to the attending physician, she would have terminated a perfectly healthy fetus. Her son, Christian, is now a clinical psychologist. She spoke with such compassion for the young women who make their way to facilities such as the Pregnancy Care Center. She reminded us that Jesus has commissioned us all to be lights of hope and love in the midst of the darkness of confusion, fear and despair.
Related to that, picking up from my theme in last week’s preaching—how there is much that we cannot control, yet we can commit ourselves to growth in self-control— I offer this excerpt from Finding Peace in the Storm: Reflections on St. Alphonsus Liguori’s Uniformity with God’s Will (Dan Burke, Sophia Institute Press, 2023). He states things better than I ever could:
…our reactions to the challenges of the world and in the Church can compel us to see only through the lens that excludes the sovereign action of God and allows our mere human will (or the demonic, which works silently on the human will) to determine how and why things happen. When we rail, criticize, and obsess over the work of our “enemies,” or of the enemies of all that is good and true in the Church, we can find ourselves in the very dangerous position of railing at something that God has allowed—and thus at God Himself. Instead, we should ask ourselves, “What is the Almighty doing here? How can I join Him? How can I ease the suffering of His people? How can I be part of the solution to the difficulties at hand and thus bring the joy and redemptive hand of God to bear in the midst of this darkness?”…
When we see only “conservative” and “liberal” scheming both within and outside the Church, and we fail to see the presence of God in our midst, we can easily fall into wrath and despair and the wailing and gnashing of teeth. (title cited above, pp.31-32)
Finally, Monday, October 7 is the Feast of the Holy Rosary. It also marks the one-year anniversary of the latest brutal conflict between Hamas and Israel. Pope Francis has invited all Catholics to live a day of pray and fasting for peace in the world. Let’s put our magnificent faith resources to work.
Let His Peace be with you,
Fr. Stephen
