Fr. Nate's Letter - January 21, 2024

What a beautiful witness it was on the part of so many of you, being here in church last weekend, despite the snow and the cold. I even witnessed some who came here by bicycle…yes, by bicycle. It was such a testament to your love for the Lord. God reward you!

This weekend, at the 9 am Mass, we have the Men’s Club joining us. Many, many thanks on the part of Fr. Simon and myself to Steve Barcy, the president, and all the members, their spouses and families. They do tremendous work for our parish. 

Some time ago I was reading a journal from Great Britain and there was a piece telling the story of Witold Pilecki. Not knowing much of his story, I asked my sister to get me a few books from the library. If you’re not familiar with Pilecki and his story, he’s often dubbed the “volunteer” because of what he did. Pilecki willingly went behind the dark curtain surrounding the concentration camps during the Second World War, to expose exactly what was taking place to military intelligence and to the rest of the world . My sister happened to bring me his journal in which he describes so much of what was happening, and I have to admit, I returned it about half way through. I could only take so much, and thought maybe I would just read his story. But one thing that struck me as I read the portion that I did, we read of so many who were robbed of life, and each of them had different gifts, different talents, different personalities, each person was so unique. I often wondered how different our world might be if all those people had had a chance and weren’t robbed of that gift?

As I’m sure you know, January 22nd is always set aside by the Church in this country as “a day of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life and of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion.” (GIRM, no.373). A thought that always comes to mind is the same one as when I was reading that journal. So many robbed of life by this travesty in our midst. How different might our world be if all of these had a chance and weren’t robbed of that gift? You and I know well that we’re a people that love and cherish life, and it’s certainly a beautiful day to thank God for that gift. The fact that I’m writing this and you’re reading this says that we were given that chance. 

I was recently reading a reflection by a monk who was telling how so many things had gone wrong that day. He was telling one thing after another to an older monk of the Abbey, who then stopped him midway through his diatribe and said, “But Father, you’re alive.” Thank you God! What a beautiful gift it is! Where would we be without it! And hopefully that love for life can then spill out to the rest of our society ensuring that all life is respected from conception to natural death. 

I share with you the prayer of the Church for this day: 
 
Keeping you in prayer, and say one for me!
Wishing you all God’s blessings this week!

- Fr. Nate