Saturday, June 11, 2016

A Word from Your Pastor - June 12

Dear Parishioners:

A great gift in our time is the simple fact that we can be in touch with people literally all over the world at the touch of a key.  There is something incredibly amazing about this reality of daily experience.  A phone call, an email or an instant message, a connection through Skype or Facetime or some other app on an electronic device can create the opportunity for an encounter with virtually every person on the planet.  Some of our elders have lived through the whole gamut of such devices: telephones with operators and party lines, radio, television, computers, cell phones, ipads, tablets, androids, iphones, etc., etc. etc.  Who knows what the next generations will see?

When we consider such advances in technology, we can come to understand more deeply by analogy the realities of our Faith that we have known through the centuries as Church.  Prayer puts us in communion with God, the Creator of the Universe, and with those who have gone before us into the mystery of the Communion of Saints.  We are able to pray now and to be in touch with the members of the Church in her three states: the Saints in Glory (the Church Triumphant), the Holy Souls of Purgatory (the Church Suffering), and the Saints in training all throughout the world (the Church Militant).

If we understand the Mass properly, we begin to realize that this is the “place” where the whole Church is present.  We one with the Saints in Glory in worship of the Living God.  In fact, Mass is our entry into the Mystery of Eternity in time.  The Light of Glory is present to us in our participation in the Mass.  We are in touch, too, with those who have gone before us in the Faith, our relatives and friends who are entrusted to God’s Mercy and whom we long to see again.  Various moments of silence, especially that which takes place right after reception of Holy Communion, are the closest we will be to them in this life.  The celebration of the same Liturgy of the Mass each day throughout the world reminds us that we are all destined for a glory that hidden from our eyes as we walk the journey of Faith.


May we all keep this in mind as we enter into the Summer months.  This may be a time of vacation from certain pursuits and activities, but it must not be a time away from the practice of our Faith.  Enjoy your Summer and keep the Faith alive in your family by continuing to worship together.  The family that prays together stays together!


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