Welcome to Assumption!

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. These words are taken from today’s Gospel and they come from the time before our Lord ascended into heaven and before the feast of Pentecost. Here our Lord is preparing His disciples for that day when they would no longer see and know Him as they had grown accustomed, but He needed to go home to His Father and prepare a place for them. Quite naturally the very idea of this was probably anything but peaceful to the disciples who must have wondered what this would mean for them. Were they being abandoned and orphaned? What about the threats from the authorities? Where should they go next? This would certainly not be a peaceful experience to have all those questions. Yet, this is exactly what our Lord tells them: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.

As a priest I have the privilege of echoing these very words at the celebration of every Eucharist immediately following the Our Father and just before we receive Communion. In fact, it is one of my most favorite prayers because when we come here week after week we can carry with us the many problems, questions and fears of life and lay them all out before our Lord. It is important to remember that these words spoken to the disciples are also spoken directly to each one of us. Our Lord made a promise to the disciples that He also makes to us: He will never leave us abandoned but is with us always. Next Sunday we will celebrate the feast of the Ascension followed by Pentecost and the completion of the Easter Season. Through this time of Lent and Easter, I hope we all have had the opportunity to grow closer to the Lord and to trust more deeply in His promises of peace and gift of the Spirit.

~ Fr. Tony

See the blueprint of the Building on a Firm Foundation Plan:

Fr. Tony