“If you love me, you will keep my commandments"

My dear friends in Christ,

Even in these uncertain times, one thing we can be sure of is that Jesus will never abandon us. This Sunday, we hear the Gospel passage that tells us that we are not alone: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments; and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you always.” Knowing that Jesus was about to depart from them, the disciples had to have been feeling a great deal of anxiety. Christ’s words, “I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you,“ must have sent waves of reassurance to their hearts and minds. During this time of pandemic, these words of comfort from Jesus resonate in our hearts even more strongly than they did before. We see how loneliness and isolation can make us uncomfortable. We look inside our Church and see empty seats. It is easy to feel abandoned, but we are never alone. Christ does not leave us orphaned. Filled with the Spirit, we must sing onward with Easter joy, knowing that one day we will be together again in our parish churches, and our choirs and assembly will sing aloud the words of this Sunday’s psalm: “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy!".

Last week, the Bishop put together a task force to begin looking at opening our Churches in phases. More details to follow.

May God bless you all,

Father John