Dear Parishioners,
So many of the things that populate our daily schedules are routine. We rise in the morning, have breakfast, bathe, dress, go to our job, perhaps volunteer or meet a friend for lunch. In moments of leisure, we may read a book, watch a baseball game, play a few hands of bridge, or turn up soil in our gardens. Errands get notched here and there in the day’s schedule like going to the dry cleaners, grocery store, gas station… and attend church? You know the drill… things to do, people to see, day after day. Nothing much here that would be considered life and death issues.
But there are days that none of us welcome. Days when we learn of a friend’s sudden passing, the news of a neighbor’s loss of work, the awareness that health has suddenly taken a turn for the worse, or that a child has lost his or her way.
Our scripture stories today tell us that God does not abandon us in those moments of darkness (Luke 7:11-17). In fact, the stories tell us quite the opposite… when darkness shows up and hope seems to move out, God moves in, because God has never moved out! God is with us, reminding us, as Paul wrote the Romans long ago, “neither life nor death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” When our resources are totally gone, God’s resources are just beginning.
- Deacon Robert
Rev. Stephen Hook is Pastor of the Pastorate of the Visitation which includes the Catholic Churches of Pasadena, Maryland: St. Jane Frances de Chantal (Riviera Beach) and Our Lady of the Chesapeake (Lakeshore). He is assisted by Associate Pastor Rev. John Belinki, Deacon Howard Klohr, and Deacon Rick Clemens. To learn more about our pastorate, please visit www.catholicpasadena.org.
