Read this week's message from Father Don
Dear parishioners
I have been on retreat at Westminster Abbey this week, along with 30 other local priests and the Acts XXIX team led by Fr. John Riccardo.
Their teaching on how God wants to heal and strengthen us, for our good and the good of others, was particularly helpful. All of us carry personal wounds and our manner of dealing with them impacts others, that is, “hurt people hurt people while healed people heal people.” It was pointed out that “God loves us as we are, but loves us too much to leave us there.” God wants to heal us and, for our part, we must want to be healed.
One big area where many of us need healing is Identity. Two big questions need to be asked: “Who am I?” “Who is God?” The Evil One is constantly trying to distort our answer to these questions so we feel bad about ourselves and about the God who made us. He reminds us of past hurts and failures and leads us to accept a negative self-image e.g., “I am not deserving of love,” “I am a bad Christian.” The scriptures, on the other hand, present a very different and affirming message: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine (Isaiah 43.1).
On the retreat we were encouraged to also consider other big questions:
At this moment what is the biggest wound in my life? Lack of forgiveness is a common wound that poisons our hearts and our lives while forgiveness is the key that unlocks healing. “Forgive everyone everything all the time, no matter what” was the recommended medicine, recognizing that first we may need to grieve the old hurts before forgiveness is possible.
What are the Devil’s strategies to hurt me and how is God asking me to defeat them? We must learn how to fight back against the Evil One and his malicious plan to harm us.
At Pentecost God sent the Holy Spirit to strengthen the apostles for their mission of proclaiming Jesus to the ends of the earth. The same Spirit has been given to us so that we might be comforted, healed and empowered to share in the mission. Let us be grateful for this gift and call upon the Spirit daily.
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