Is there anybody up there??????

Hi Folks,

What a huge weekend this is. The Feast of the Ascension of Christ & the weekend of commitment for our Building a Future of Hope campaign. I promise you these two dates do not coincide on purpose, but I'm glad they have. The Feast of the ascension is all about HOPE. And we are in the process of sacrificing some of our treasure to empower future generations find hope in their faith by what we build and by the ministries of our parish and archdiocese.

It took me a while to get a bit of a grasp upon the meaning of this feast that we celebrate today. (I know I'm sort of dense, but I can understand deep theological concepts if you talk slow enough.) But I see the Feast of the Ascension as a celebration of hope. One of the prayers we pray at Mass today says "that where (Jesus) has gane, we hope to follow". So we have hope today that we too will enjoy eternal life with Jesus and God the Father and the Communion of the Saints, becasuse Jesus has blazed the path for us. I also find a lot of hope in the belief that Jesus was a full blown human being just like you and me AND now he is also GOD in HEAVEN forever. This gives me a lot of hope and comfort to realize that God has a human face & skin. It makes me pray easier knowing that the God I'm talking to was tempted like me, loved and was loved like me, suffered worse than I can ever imagine suffering, and defined what it means to sacrifice for God and others. Having a God in Heaven who was human makes a difference in the way I live and believe. God gives me HOPE.

I have been very inspired by your participation in the Building a Future of Hope campaign. YOU GIVE ME HOPE. Your generous sacrifices for the sake of our archdiocese and for our parish are simply awe inspiring. I couldn't begin to imagine the total of hours that more than 325 of you have sacrificed to make this campaign work. All of the effort that you have given to planning, meetings, setting things up, taking things down, stuffing, writing, editing, refining, mailing, phone calling, counting, scheduling and on and on. THANKS!!!!!!!! You are also very very generous with sacrificing your treasure. No other parish in the Archdiocese is responding to this campaign like you are. I am humbled and honored to be your pastor. Thanks for filling me with hope of this Feast of Hope!

paz,
Fr. Chuck