Two weeks ago, the communion antiphon at Mass was taken from Psalm 34: 6: “Look toward the Lord and be radiant; let your faces not be abashed.” As I listened to our cantors and choirs intone this antiphon, it occurred to me that looking toward the Lord is the exact thing all of us are being called to do right now. To be abashed means to be embarrassed or disconcerted or ashamed. While we likely don’t feel embarrassed or ashamed by the changes and challenges we are facing, I know that many of us feel disconcerted by it all. These are hard things we are doing – there’s no denying that. It isn’t always clear why it has to happen, or even how it’s going to happen. We are uncertain, angry, sad, frustrated, anxious, disconcerted. Our faces can easily be downcast because of it all. But the Lord invites us to look toward him and be radiant, so our faces need not be abashed. This is a kind of secret for success as we journey along the path of faith the Lord has paved for us. We need to keep looking at Him. It seems too simple, but that doesn’t make it any less powerful, and perhaps its power is in its simplicity. Look towards the Lord and be radiant – if we look at the Lord, keeping our eyes fixed on Him, He will radiate His light upon us, making us radiant with His own radiance. This is a bit of wisdom that Blessed Carlo Acutis knew already by the time he died in his 15th year. He was known to say: “Sadness is looking at ourselves, happiness is looking at God; conversion is just a shift of the eyes”. Sometimes, especially when we are facing difficulties, we can become so fixated on the challenges and problems and our own insecurities amid it all, and this tends towards sadness, towards being abashed. If we just remember to look up, to shift our eyes, to look towards the Lord, we will be radiant and even happy, in the true, Christian sense of the word. All of us should be spending time literally looking towards the Lord in adoration, because it is there that we bask in His radiance most truly. Time in His presence can do wonders for a soul and will do wonders for our parish family if more of us commit to taking that time with Him. We are all journeying towards the Lord together; He is our goal. If we keep our eyes fixed on Him, we will see that we have a future full of hope, because the Lord is the source and summit of our hope.
There are so many good things we have going for us in our parish family, and taking stock of these things – especially in times like this – can lift our hearts; gratitude is the best antidote to so many hard feelings. We have dozens of men and women involved in the Cana Family program, diving deeper into their faith and discovering new facets of their identity as God’s sons and daughters, as they live out or seek the vocation to marriage and family. We have a growing youth ministry program, with our young people becoming more excited about their faith together with generous witnesses from our parish family. We have launched a new parish apostolate, Domestica, to help families grow in their mission of living and handing on the faith in the home; in the first week alone, there were around 300 subscriptions to the monthly newsletter! We have grief and homebound and nursing home apostolates serving our community, and so many more signs of life in the parishes. I am grateful to everyone who is making these good things possible in our family. I am also deeply grateful for your courage and trust as we undergo these changes, which is a testimony to your faith. If we feel the Lord is pruning us right now, we know it is because He plans to draw more fruit from us (cf. John 15:2). There are good roots here. As I said back in July of 2021, when I came here as pastor, what gave me much hope and encouragement to come serve these parishes was two things: faith and family. Even though we will always have work to do as we become the saints God is calling us to be, nonetheless we have a strong family culture and the faith of these parishes is deep; those two things are a great foundation for a future full of hope. Let’s not lose sight of this truth.
This week on Wednesday I will be flying out to California for my canonical retreat. I’ll be visiting St. Michael’s Abbey in Silverado again this year. It is a special place, a prayerful place and a peaceful place. Of course, I will be taking all of you with me and keeping you in prayer. Please don’t hesitate to send me a specific prayer intention you’d like me to keep. After my retreat I will spend a few days visiting and traveling with friends before returning on the 17th. Please pray for me, and I look forward to seeing you all again when I return. May God bless you in the week ahead and may Mother Mary lead you more deeply into the Sacred and Merciful Heart of Jesus. I remain,
Affectionately Yours in Christ,
Fr. Hess
