From the Pastor’s Desk:
God always brings goodness out of evil. God does not cause evil, but He works beyond it. Covid 19 it a terrible virus killing over 435,000 Americans and it is still raging across our country. I will stay that when we first went into lock down, there was not much to do. No school functions, no nursing home visits, no hospital visits, not much of anything except time It gave me time to think, reflect and pray. What a novel idea, prayer. Yes I had been praying my daily office, working on my personal prayer life, but now I had the time to mediate and reflect. As our society, schools and churches reopened I have been careful to not lose some of that time from the lockdown. My challenge to all of us, myself included, do we take time for prayer, to work on our relationship with God? Any relationship takes work, friend, family or God. Perhaps the better question would be, do we make time for prayer in the midst of all the stuff we are doing? Is prayer in a priority place in our daily lives or at the bottom of the “to do list” and it never gets done?
Our relationship with God should be at the heart of who we are and all that we do. Prayer cannot be taken for granted nor left to last place. We need that personal time to give God praise, worship, thanksgiving and petition. We need the Lord beside us every day and throughout the entire day. We need to be in touch with our God and allow Him to touch our minds and hearts through Sacred Scripture and in the silence of our hearts. This is not a luxury, it is a necessity if we want a strong relationship with God.
All of us have rituals, whether we are single, or married with children. Look over your daily schedule and plan a few minutes at the beginning of your day with that first cup of coffee, thanking God for the day and offering Him all that you will do that day. Invite Him along on your daily journey. Ask for His guidance as you think of the events you know you will encounter. If you drive to work, put on a spiritual CD, or simply talk to God along the way. Find the brief moments that are apart of all of our days in which we can talk with God about what we are experiencing. What is important is making the effort to be with the Lord, even if it is only for a few minutes, and establishing a consistent pattern as part of your schedule. If you are like me, when I get away from my schedule things do not always get completed.
Our whole purpose for being is to one day be with the Lord in His kingdom, in the place He has created for us. But there is a hard question to be answered, “If we don’t want the relationship with God now, why would He want us after death?” Prayer is so important in our relationship with God, since it is how we communicate with our God, that we cannot push it to the bottom of our “to do list” that never gets done.
Thank you to Sr. Elizabeth Ann and Joseph Nguyen who helped with the Christmas ceramics sale. We made $2,000 for our building fund.