Dear SJF/OLC Pastorate Friends,
This weekend, one of the themes of our readings is Faith. Faith is a gift from God that is freely offered to each and every one of us, but it is a gift that requires our cooperation in order to be fully manifested in our lives. As we hear in the Gospel, the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith, but as Jesus responds to their inquiry, it sounds like faith is not something we need a larger “quantity” of. On the contrary, having faith the size of mustard seed is more than enough to accomplish miraculous things.
When we are being tried by the daily cares and anxieties of life, and therefore are unable to experience this gift of faith in a meaningful way, it does sometimes feel like the Lord doesn’t hear us or doesn’t seem to be concerned with our struggles. However, we ought to know that this could not be further from the truth! The Lord is always standing at the door waiting for us to invite Him into our struggles and our fears, if only we keep the slightest flicker of faith burning within us. It is like the embers in a fire pit that may seem like they are dying out, unable to continue burning. But in reality, all they need is a dry piece of wood in order to be ignited once again. So when we feel dry, when our faith feels weak or lacking, then in some sense we are primed and ready to be enkindled once again. And this can be accomplished by only having faith the size of a mustard seed, which is pretty small. This week, find the time to stir into flame this gift from God, our faith, that you have already received. It is still there within you!
I would like to thank Fr. Jim, the Knights of Columbus, the Scouts, and the parishioners of both parishes who assisted with the Axe Throwing and Log Splitting Challenge at St Jane’s this past week. There was an awesome turnout of people and families from both parishes! It was a special occasion for me to see people from both of our pastorate parishes coming together for a singular event. Although we are in our infancy concerning the launch of our Pastorate, it is great to see these activities that bring us together being so well attended. (And it was great to beat Fr. Jim 12-0 in our head-to-head axe throwing challenge!) Stay tuned for more pastorate-wide activities in the coming weeks, which can be found in the bulletin.
Thank you for keeping us in your daily prayers as we certainly do for each of you!
God Bless,
Father Steve
