Pray

01-21-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Fred Adamson

Dear Parishioners,

We are now on our short journey in ordinary time in the Church. The root of the word ordinary comes from the word order. The focus for this short period is Ordinary Holiness—Ordinary Lives. Meaning, recognizing that holiness is about living lives that have a natural order toward God and Godly things. The Church provides that structure and order.

We set aside Sunday for worship of the Lord as part of the proper ordering of all things. We bring everything to the Lord to give him thanks, to petition and pray, to be fed by His Word and Sacrament. Our rituals have order that has been established and guided for centuries—they provide us with stability and focus in a world that can be chaotic and often disordered.

Our individual lives and families can sometime seem or become disordered...when we recognize this has happened it is good to ask, what order have I put God and His loving care of me/us in our lives? How can I better allow God to put order to my life and the situation? Often in chaos and turmoil we long for things to be ordinary—back to regular, routine or normal. God’s creation has a natural order and our souls long for that order. May this period of ordinary time help us to know the order God desires for us and families.

Monday, January 22nd is a day of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life and of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion. We are encouraged to fast and do penance as a nation on this day to be connected with the suffering caused by abortion.

In a special way, we unite to pray for the conversion of our nations so that we can become a society of love where no one needs to consider taking the life of an unborn child, or abandoning an expectant mother; a place where every human life is valued and deeply loved because it is part of God’s creation. Life is beautiful because God is the source of creation of each individual person. As mentioned above, when things become disordered—everything becomes chaotic and unfortunately people get hurt. Please take time on Monday to offer prayer for someone you may know who is struggling or say a Hail Mary and ask our Blessed Mother to shower it upon a person who needs it most.

Our Sanctity of Life group has many resources for expectant mothers and we as a parish want to help them know they are not alone. Thank you for all you do to support the various agencies and apostolates in our local Church that are showing real love to women and their babies.

May God’s merciful grace continue to be with us as we open our hearts, minds, our very being to His beautiful order for our lives.

Peace, light and wisdom in Him,

Fr. Fred