We welcomed our spiritual advisor, Fr. Chris Heath, who spoke beautifully on how we can renew ourselves as Pilgrims of Hope. He began by sharing Romans 5:1-5: Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access [by faith] to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. He encouraged us to read Pope Francis’ SPES NON CONFUNDIT, Hope does not disappoint and Pope Benedict XVI’s SPE SALVI which begins; SPE SALVI facti sumus—in hope we were saved. Fr. Chris explained that the emotion of hope is not the same as the virtue of hope. We long for spiritual things; union with God who made us in His image. Because our nature is broken, our desires for physical things grow. This can result in us losing our souls. All our hopes should be oriented around our one greatest hope which will not leave us wanting for more. He said that people who don’t believe in God are people without hope. If you don’t believe in something yet to come, what is the point of life? Without hope, life would be purposeless. He suggested that for the Jubilee year of hope that we try to improve in some way; get rid of something bad permanently or do something good and continue it. He also gave suggestions for actions that we can take such as offering something up, go on pilgrimage to a holy place (there are several jubilee pilgrimage options locally), be a tangible sign of hope to others, and prayer to name a few.

There were approximately 70 people in attendance as Fr. Sy shared his inspiring talk, I Resolve! He shared with us that Pope Saint John Paul II recognized what he called the law of gradualness. This is not a gradual turning away from sin but the doctrine that, at our conversion, we are not yet perfect but we receive the grace to turn from evil and gradually advance in holiness. Fr. Sy said, “If God wants to make us holy overnight, he can but usually he works with us.” He said, we dance with God, but we have to let him take the lead. We cannot do it by ourselves and he won’t do it for us without us doing our part. God wants us to be part of the dance. He waits for our permission. We have to work to say yes to God. He saved us and did all the work but we still need to do our work and say yes to God. Fr. Sy gave us a list of 35 suggested resolutions and encouraged us to pick three to incorporate in our lives this year. He explained that we need to take action and not just rely on good intentions. We also need to make our resolutions specific and identify specific actions to take each day or week to successfully achieve our resolutions. Thank you Fr. Sy for the inspiring words and concrete ideas to help us in our resolve to unite our hearts to God and help each other to heaven.

We welcomed back Claire Frazier-Yzaguirre, MFT, M.Div, therapist, author & speaker in our Diocese, to share with us how we can make this Advent a beautiful time of welcoming Jesus anew in our hearts & homes!

Dr. ValLimar Jansen, international music performer, led us through a beautiful experience of singing, sharing and movement. The group was awe struck by ValLimar and her inspirational sharing of scripture and music.

Fr. Greg Walgenbach reminded us that we are claimed by God, there is no other identity that is more important than our relationship with God. Our primary loyalty is to the house of God, a holy nation. We are bound to one another because we drink of the same spirit. We need to keep this in mind as we go to the polls.