Holy Innocents Catholic Church!

October 15, 2021                                                                                              

Dear Friends in Christ,

It is good to be back with you.  I was away at a liturgy conference for a week and then had about ten days of vacation, mostly in the American Southwest.  I am grateful to God.  The travels were very renewing.  One of the places I visited was a very moving shrine in Chimayo, New Mexico.  It a place of prayer and pilgrimage, and many healing miracles are associated with the blessed soil which is obtained there.  The shrine always reminds people that the miracles are ‘grounded’ in faith in Jesus Christ.   The holy dirt is a sacramental which points people to Christ who formed us from the dust of the earth.   One of the things that struck me there was the prayerfulness of the people and the place.  They approached the church with great devotion and reverence.  At the door of the church were cards to pick up, with a message that I think is very relevant to us today:

What is the difference?  We have all seen people visiting churches and holy sites with their cameras out.   I certainly have been among them.  And the desire to take photos of beautiful and holy places and share them is not bad at all.   But when that is all we do, or the majority of what we do, then we miss the point of the place visited and the purpose of it… to lead us to a closer encounter with Christ.  The beauty of the place, the holy relics there, the existence of the place itself is meant to help us listen to God and commune with him.   And isn’t this what life is all about as well?   Were we not made for God and his purposes?  Was not all creation meant to reveal God’s handiwork and lead us to him?  Isn’t every human encounter an encounter with someone made in the image and likeness of God?  It seems these days, in our virtual world, with wonderful technology, that it is easy to go through life as a kind of voyeur, looking at it, complaining about the world, participating in things virtually, but not in reality.  It seems to me the message to be a pilgrim and not a tourist is really to engage with the world and with one another and that in doing so we will then find the world charged and filled with God’s presence.  

There is much more that I could say about the meaning of this short reminder from Chimayo and I will offer some more reflections in the future.   However, I do want it to help encourage us in the life of grace and prayer.   Come to church, daily and Sunday Mass.  Encounter the Lord in the Eucharist, in adoration and confession.  Open your hearts to voice of Christ which always seek to engage us.  Be a pilgrim, not at tourist!

• Adoration at Holy Innocents: 6-8 pm every Friday night. Confession Friday 6-7 pm
• Adoration at St. Jude:  9:30 am to 9 pm every Friday.  Confessions Saturday 3:30-4:30 pm
• Daily Mass at St. Jude Monday-Friday (except Tuesday) 9AM
• Daily Mass at Holy Innocents:  Tuesday, Thursday, Friday at 9AM.  Wednesday at 6 pm

Blessings on your week!

Fr. Johnson