thoughts on the Ascension

I still get the bulletin mailed to me each week from my old parish. St Phil's is really my spiritual home. It's where I came back to the church and where I discovered my passion for peace & justice. I like to keep tabs on the goings on there. Plus, that way I know what to pray for. Right now they're getting ready to welcome a refugee family from Burundi!

I also enjoy reading the Pastoral Corner, which the pastor, associate pastor and director of faith formation take turns writing. This week's pastoral corner was written by the pastor, Fr. Rich Colgan and it has some words I really needed to hear related to the recent feast of the Ascension and life.

Transitions, even necessary ones, are hard. They were for the first disciples as they went from seeing Jesus visibly to knowing of his presence with them as Risen Lord. Yet, this transition changed them from adolescent followers to adult leaders like Jesus Christ. He calls them and calls us to carry on with our own mission(s) in life, knowing that our experiences will not be easy always, but always will be worthwhile. Jesus the Christ invites us to embrace life to the full as He did. Our Light and Our Peace tells us not to be afraid or anxious.

There's more, but these words really spoke to my heart today. Once again and example of how we stumble across what we need to read at particular points of our journey. I've already e-mail Fr. Rich to let him know that his pastoring continues, even if I'm 3,000 miles away and he didn't know I needed to read/hear that!