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Welcome! Rejoice! Blessings to you and your loved ones from your Catholic Charismatic NY Diocesan Service Team in this new Holy year of our Lord
Jesus Christ!
There is something beautiful that occurs in nature during the fall season in the northern half of the United States. Some of the greatest beauty of nature God has reserved for that time of the year when nature is dying all around us. I wonder at times whether God, in ‘speaking’ through the fall season, might be telling us that there is something beautiful to behold in the ‘dying’ of mother nature. Most people grow anxious when you speak about dying and death. They fear even approaching the subject. If they could, many people would choose to live in a perpetual spring or summer. In spring and summer we see life begin to blossom and bud, and in the summertime, the full maturity of flowers, plants and trees. Yet, why is it, that in the season of the ‘dying’ of nature, we discover the brilliance of God’s pallet of colors. When the sun is shining through the leaves of the maple, oak and ash trees, one cannot believe the magnificence of God’s glory. A friend of mine gave me a book once entitled “Living Well, Dying Well”. While I haven’t read it yet, the title intrigues me. By my own experience with dying, I’ve discovered the truth of this title: if you live well, you will die well. It’s often been said that it’s not how long you live that counts, but how well you live the years God has allotted to you. You can live a life of many years and be miserable, or you can live a life a short number of years and lived them to the full. The fall season is a time for reflection on our own death that is pending. Our dying, like the dying of nature around us, does not have to be gloom and doom, but can be a time where our lives, like the leaves, reflect the glory of God. The month of November is that month in the church calendar where we are reminded that we are a church not only in communion with God, but also in union with our baptized brothers and sisters, both living and dead. The church celebrations of All Saints and All Souls reminds all of us that there is a much wider church than simply those living on earth. The church consists of the church militant (on earth), the church suffering (purgatory) and the church triumphant (heaven). We are a church of sinners, saints and sojourners. We hope that as the month of November draws to an end you will be able to joyfully give thanks to God for the manifold blessings He has bestowed on this land, our church and our families. At the end of a year and the approaching end of our life on earth, we should become more and more thankful. We know that you are very thankful for the ministry of your parish priests and we are certainly most grateful for all the prayers offered for us throughout the past year. May the enjoyment of these fall days be a mere anticipation of the joy and glory that awaits us all when we behold the Lord face to face. Father Bill Cosgrove __________________________________________ Read these other articles:
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