For What It's Worth by Erin

Our RCIA’ers: We are coming to the end of the Easter season. We celebrate the Feast of the Ascension this Sunday, and in a week, on the Feast of Pentecost, our new Catholics will enter the Church, finally making their  sacraments as they should have at the Easter Vigil.
 
Despite that, or BECAUSE that didn’t occur, something marvelous has happened. We entered the UPPER ROOM.  You know the place. Jesus’s Disciples hung out there after the crucifixion and Resurrection. Well, the RCIA’ers, members of the RCIA team, Fr. Hans, and I have been hanging out there during the Pandemic. Fr. Dave even visited our Zoom Upper Room.

Bigger than that, Jesus has been there too! We have met each week to continue to explore our faith, to allow faith to support us in the midst of all that was going on around us. Our friendships have deepened, and our Tuesday nights together are something we now savor and look even more forward to.
 
It’s a great lesson. No amount of Netflix or binge watching unwatched episodes of anything could have filled this time in a way that would be meaningful and life changing. Like the other things that this Pandemic has offered, we have invited God and our faith in Him into our homes and families in a  new way. I pray to God that we are smart enough to invite Jesus to stay.

We have waited ‘in joyful hope’ for the time to come when we could safely gather, and thanks be to God, it’s almost here. May we both savor and rejoice when our Church can be filled again, when our sacraments can be celebrated regularly and vibrantly.
 

May we also remember that there will always be the UPPER ROOM, the place that Jesus will come anytime we ask Him to come and be with us. I also pray that this gives us a new FAITH-FILLED NORMAL, when all is said and done!  AMEN! +


With God’s grace, may it be so! +