Patience is a Virtue
One of the great spiritual lessons I’ve learned along the way is to hold on to moments of spiritual consolation for those times when spiritual desolation will inevitably come. Consolation here means the experience of the goodness of the Lord, answered prayers, His closeness, the receiving of particular graces; desolation here means the perceived absence of those things.
In the moments or even seasons of life marked by this desolation, we can draw up from memory those times of consolation, reliving and re-experiencing those graces to give us a sort of spiritual endurance booster. In the coming weeks, we are going to need such spiritual reinforcement to give us that great virtue of patience.
Part I of the storm water drainage project is nearing completion and work will begin very soon on the section of the parking lot up by the rectory. While the gym parking lot’s inaccessibility made gym, preschool, and Knights activities a bit more challenging, this next phase will be a great deal more invasive. Two-way traffic on the East Side (Tower Side) will be necessary as the area between the church and the rectory will be worked on. We expect fewer delays and hiccups with this Part II, but we are realistically looking at 4 weeks of disruption.
It will be a challenge; there will be desolation and frustration. But I pray that we all will hold on to those graces of Christmas…our gratitude for the Lord’s Birth, for giving us an Oasis, a place to worship Him, for the beauty and depth of the liturgy, for our growth as a parish, for the hope that His arrival brings, for the possibilities that open up to us for completing this project. There is much to be grateful for!
May all these graces and the countless others that the Lord lavishly pours out on us be our consolation through the desolation!
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever!
All you holy saints of God, pray for us!
Peace in Christ,
Fr. Michael
Pastor