As I was clearing out some files this week, I came upon notes from parish council meetings that dated back to 2018. It was in October 2018 that this column was first published. Our parish had recently lost its pastor and we were all at a loss of what was to happen to us. We had many activities and programs that we were in the midst of and were told that it could be a year before we had a pastor assigned to St. Paul parish. Parish council was determined to do all we could to maintain a cohesiveness despite having a different priest presider at many of our weekend Masses. St. Paul was known to be a parish with a lively, supportive, hospita-ble, singing, family orientation as a community. The then-president of council, Lori, asked me to write a column for the bulletin that would encourage and assure our community that God was with us and still leading us—that all would be well. Humbled and nervous, I prayed for God to guide me in this endeavor–to be a conduit for what He had in store for our very special parish and its people. He guided me to our well known parish charism–hospitality…and thus All Are Welcome came to be. Each week until we had a fulltime pastor, we explored many aspects of parish life, spirituality, encouragement, Pope Francis’s teachings on the Beatitudes, reflections and sharings on following in the footsteps of Jesus. And here it is 3 years later and writing this column continues to humble me that Jesus would guide me in what to write. Praise be to His Holy Spirit! Praise be to our Heavenly Father! Praise be to Jesus Our Lord and Savior! Amen.
Relationship……Relationship…….Relationship!!!
That’s what it’s all about! It is of utmost importance that we have a relationship–a personal relationship with our God—for how else can we love Him with our whole heart, our whole mind, our whole soul, our whole strength. He wants more from us than puppy love….He wants our engagement and faithful trust in His caring love for us. He wants us to trust that He walks every step of our lives with us even when we don’t understand why things happen. He blesses us and talks to us even when we feel distant from Him. He never turns His back on us or leaves us to flounder, but patiently waits for us to trust and believe that He is in control and has us in the palm of His hand. He loves us so much that He would never force Himself on us, but He waits for us to truly choose and love Him–to hand Him our worries, stresses, fears…and rest in His mercy and peace.
Love your neighbor as yourself–again relationship! St. Paul parishioners have long been known for their hospitality and welcoming spirit. We are a large community, but all are wel-come to be a part of our family. Even with Covid, we have maintained our caring loving spirit in different ways. Jesus wants us to love one another–to show that love and share that love with others outside our church walls as well. (You knew I would get to that!) Random acts of kindness are sub-tle love acts that can cause others to want to treat people as they want to be treated. You don’t have to throw your arms around a stranger to be in relationship with them–to share love with them. A compliment, a smile, a kind word, holding a door for someone, bringing coffee or a donut to a coworker or teacher, raking an elderly or ill neighbor’s leaves, sending a card or text message to someone who needs encourage-ment,and so on—these are all ways of relationship…of shar-ing the love of Christ.
Relationship with God and with others…love…is not always easy…but its rewards are life-giving, limitless, and Spirit-filled.
Have a blessed, merciful, relationship filled week!
Alvera Bell