From the Pastor's Desk: God Always Reaches Out to Us

Blessed Carlo Acutis was beatified on October 10,2020.  He is known as the Apostle to the Internet, since as a teenager he cataloged all the reported  Eucharistic Miracles in the history of our Church.  He made a website so that all can see those miracles.  During our Corpus Christi celebration, we had numerous Eucharistic Miracle panels displayed in the gathering space of the St. Francis campus. With his mother, Carlo would walk the streets and help the homeless when he was about 14 years old.  He will be canonized a saint in the near future.  
 
We have many saints in our Church that give us an example of holiness.  Last month I wrote about Michelle Duppong, who hopefully will be the next American Saint.  What these two have in common, is they realized that God was calling them to have a relationship with Him. 
 
As we are trying to define what our vision and mission of Our Lady of Light Family of Parishes.  Our staff and had a team building morning. I spoke with our Family Pastoral Council, and other groups and asked them what does it mean to be a parishioner of Our Lady of Light Family of Parishes.  I also asked them what habits does a missionary disciple have?
 
It was interesting because many people didn’t really know how to define a missionary disciple (and I must admit that I have learned over the past few years as well).  It is a term that we use today to describe someone who is seeking a greater relationship with Jesus in their life and a greater relationship being in communion with those around them.  A disciple seeks prayer, time with scripture, connecting to a small prayer group or connection group, normal reception of the sacraments, acts of service to name a few.  
 
These are all traits that we want to see in our people.  Yet, at the same time we have to realize that we are not the ones who are initiating the relationships.  It is God first who is initiating and inspiring us to have a greater relationship with Him in Jesus, and a greater relationship with those around them.  
 
That is why we realized that we have to help people understand and realize that God wants a relationship with every single person.  He never stops reaching out to us and share His life and love with us.
 
God makes His life present to us in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and especially in Jesus’ true presence in the Eucharist.  We make heaven present to others with things like acts of service, showing forgiveness, and great worship of God.
 
We are called to help others come to know God personally, because we already know him personally.  He wants a relationship with all His children and wants to walk with us in our every day life.
 
Our Lady of Light Family of parishes has a new vision and mission statement:
Vision: We are called to make heaven present here and now.
 
What this means is that when we go to Mass, heaven is made present to us in the Eucharist. When Jesus said “Do this in memory of me,” God brings the action of Jesus’ Passover with apostles 2,000 years ago present to us today. We are sitting in the upper room with them, and all of the heavenly court of angels and saints.
 
God’s life is communicated to us in the Eucharist. We are called to take this reception of God’s greatest gift to humanity, the true presence of the resurrected Christ, and make that present for others.  What we receive fuels our zeal to serve others around us, walk with each other in the journey of faith, serve the poor, be volunteers to help with youth programming, and live our faith wherever we are: at work, at home, and show Christ to all we meet.
 
Our Mission then is to help people walk with God in their every day life.  This could mean something different to every person or family since we all have different situations.  
 
As we move toward our parish picnic, we will be highlighting saints that were not priests, nuns, or other types of religious.  We will be highlighting saints that lived as “lay people”, or people that lived the vocations of marriage or single life.  These are two great vocations that bring love and fruitfulness to the Church.  St. Gianna Molla, St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, Sts. Zelie and Louis Martin, St. Thomas More, Blessed (soon to be Saint) Carlo Acutis, Blessed Chiara Bodano.  These are all saints who were parents, sons or daughters, doctors, merchants, in politics.  They all lived lives of families and sought to live the life of heaven here and now.  
 
In Christ,
Fr. Brian