Pastor's Letter

A HOUSE OF PRAYER
 
Isaiah’s words today have become some profound words for reflection, especially after all we’ve been going through.  We’re in the last part of his book, which was written after the Jewish people returned from being exiled. They returned to their land, but to a city without the great Temple Solomon erected—it was destroyed when they were captured and it needed to be rebuilt.
 
In his prophecy, he gives us the Lord’s words to hold onto, which is about the future. The Temple will indeed be rebuilt, but it will be a place where everyone who believes in what is right, true and just can gather, which meant not just the Israelites. In the Lord’s words: “For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Is 56:7).
 
Those words carry great meaning these days, as we take some time to think and reflect on what it means to be a house of prayer—especially when many of us aren’t able to gather in the church building because of the risks involved in being in a public space. What launches our reflection, is that the Temple—the house of prayer the Lord describes—wasn’t a place to be, at least just yet. It would take time to rebuild the great building.  So, the house of prayer became the great hope for a meeting place where God could engage with his people.
 
As we know, as Jesus cleanses the Temple in John’s gospel, it’s Jesus who revealed that the true Temple—the true House of Prayer—is his own body that would be shared, given and could never be destroyed again (John 2: 19-21). The house of prayer is where we encounter the divine.
 
Inside our Church, we know that the fullest encounter is in the Eucharist, the Body of Christ, who we take into our very being. But during these times, when many of us feel exiled and pulled away from being present to it, our house of prayer becomes another place of being.
 
When we tune in on-line to stay connected to see our physical house of prayer; when we find time to pray during the day—whether it is devotional prayer or prayer that comes from the heart; when we decide to do an act of service or advocate for justice because it’s the right thing to do, we illuminate the house of prayer in our own “inner room” (see Luke 6:5-7), which is within us. 
 
If we cannot make it to our physical house of prayer, our own homes and our own lives become the house of prayer that connects and consumes us. And one day, just like the Israelites returning from a time of exile, we will rejoice in gathering together, worshiping again, and receiving the Body of Christ within, the way we long to do. In the meantime, we say with the psalmist: “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord” (Psalm 122) in the place we find God is with us here and now.
 
GOOD NEWS
Congratulations to our second group of teens to receive their Confirmation! Their names grace the cover as they were graced with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. After months of postponing First Communions, Confirmations and the Sacraments of Initiation, we’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to administer them once again! For those present, it was a meaningful time of rejoicing in the house of the Lord.
 
May the peace of the Lord be with you, always. 
 
      –Fr. Mike