The story behind this blog is one of faith journey. As a pastor, I seriously intend to keep track of my experience with the people and the community as a whole assigned under my pastoral care and responsibility and see the difference (if there’s any) between then (past), now (present) and onwards (the future). What I plan to do is piece together the stuff of life in the Catholic Community. There’s no motive other than to share to the readers (or whoever stumbled upon this blog) what transpired last week to bring people to God and vice-versa. Earlier this week, I was pleasantly surprised to hear from a parishioner (name withheld) letting me know how much he enjoys and appreciates the Pastor’s Corner and I replied back, thank you (with a few adlibs). For the life of me, I couldn’t believe that someone actually filled out the contact us form and dropped me a message. All the while, I thought I was just writing to myself (which I’ve been doing for some time now) and the brick wall as my inanimate audience. Truly, I never expected that someone in the blogosphere let alone una persona living within the cluster parishes actually reads my posts, although let’s be real, once you put something online, it will instantly travel in cyberspace (es decir, once you press the publish button, it’s for public consumption). This blog exists to serve the religious community down here in Douglas-Pirtleville and beyond.

As expected, the Ash Wednesday masses were packed. I deeply appreciate the humungous amount of people in the church. Ash Wednesday brought the many souls back. It’s not a holy day of obligation but most of the masses were standing- room- only and spilled over, after all. There’s nothing like coming together in a solemn moment of shared public penance for our sins against God, one another and the community. It rings true that all of us from all walks of life regardless of our background and status, have experienced brokenness (at some point in life) and therefore, in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness.

Last Sunday, the Catholic Community welcomed the Missionaries from the Franciscan University in Steubenville, OH spending the week mostly in Loretto School. There was nothing fancy in the welcome gesture, just a huge round of applause. I asked them to stand to be recognized by the gathered community.

Let’s pray for the eternal repose of the souls of Maria Luisa Barraza Martinez and Dylan Martinez and express our condolences and sympathies to the grieving families, relatives and friends. Also, join me in praying for all the 157 casualties of the Ethiopian airlines plane crash along with the heartbroken loved ones. Amen.