Pilgrimage

Dec 2

Letter from the Pastor
Second Week of Advent
December 4, 2022

These are the opening lyrics to the song, “For Good” from the Broadway Musical, Wicked. It is a duet sung toward the end of the show between the two people who were constantly battling each other throughout the show! Their personalities were different; their outlook on life was different; everything about them was different, but in the end, they recognized how the other had influenced who they had become. By meeting each other their lives were changed. Although the lyrics could leave some doubt, there was actually no question that their lives had been changed for the good, as well as, for good.

I have used this song many times at the beginning of a pilgrimage because I believe it sets the tone that a pilgrimage is different from a travel vacation. Don’t get me wrong, I do love a good travel vacation. However, a pilgrimage has a specific intention to meet the Lord in a new way, and in that, a pilgrimage changes our life, for the good, and for good.

This past Wednesday, Fr. Andrew and 33 pilgrims left for a 10-day pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Twenty of those pilgrims are from our parish. Please keep them in your prayer during their sojourn to the most holy places of the three Abrahamic faiths. Like the disciples traveling to Emmaus, we pray that they too may recognize Jesus on their journey and that they return to us blessed and changed, for good.

If you were not able to join this pilgrimage, do not worry, Adventurous Andrew will be leading another pilgrimage next September to Greece and the Greek Isles. This will lead you through ancient and modern Greece as well as take you to some of the places where St. Paul established the earliest Christian communities such as Corinth and Thessaloniki. If you are interested, please contact Fr. Andrew in the parish office. This pilgrimage will be Sept. 19-29, 2023.

May God continue to bless all of us on our own pilgrimage of life as we give thanks for the people who have changed us and made us who we are today.

Peace and All Good!