“Food for the journey and early guidance.
To fresh pastures to nourish and develop our communities of faith”.
I have collected all the left over newsletters from the past weeks. I believe our two communities have real foundations to build upon as we address the future. Last weeks newsletter addressed this situation by saying:
“A certain parish priest frequently reminds his congregation that our God is community, friendship, love, unity: Three Persons who POPE FRANCIS’ ENCYCLICAL FRATELLI TUTTI are One. The human race is made in His image: made to be community, love, friendship, unity. Because of the fall of Adam and its consequences, this has become a huge challenge, as we see in the war in Ukraine and as we have experienced so often in the past. Yet we do see signs of what should be, when we hear of or see, great acts of generosity or courage on the part of individuals or groups. Our God is not a God far off. As Moses put it, “What great nation is there that has its gods so near as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call to Him?” It is something that Our Lord makes clear in today’s Gospel passage: the Spirit of Truth will “guide you into all truth”; and, “He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine” and the Father’s, “and making it known to you.” “He will guide you.” We are not left alone. God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are there for us; invite and call us to put our faith and trust in Them.. They will renew in us, individually and as a people, the image of Themselves.”
Soon we will return to that journey as we again celebrate what we call “the ordinary”, the cycle leading us to our salvation and the fulness of life in God’s Kingdom. It is through the ordinary cycle that we grow in faith and faithfulness; the great challenge . As a priest it will be my fifty first cycle, and while on earth, sadness is part of our experience. In my earliest years I was full of hope and purpose, it was shortly after the Second Vatican Council, and there was a great focus on it. Our Professor of Theology, Fr Seamas Ryan, was truly inspirational, and continues to inspire me and I hope all of us, as we face the new challenges, our emphasis will be on communities of faith.