Dear Disciples of Christ at Holy Spirit, St. Helen’s, and St. Mary’s,

It has been a blessing to continue getting to know our parish. I’m beginning to see more and more of the beautiful aspects of our community, and I am encouraged by the good work already underway. As I continue through this first season of my time as your administrator, I’m trying especially to listen and watch for the ways the Holy Spirit is alive and moving in our hearts. I’m already seeing His presence at work among us. Once again, I want to express how blown away I am by the very warm welcome you have given me.

I’ve been reminded an awful lot this week of the need for humility, especially as I’ve continued to reflect on last week’s Gospel of the Canaanite woman. Through her perseverance and humility, she found the key to Jesus’ heart. In her willingness to humble herself before Him, she found herself changed and transformed into the image of His own heart, the heart of Jesus who reveals His own perseverance and humility most especially on the cross.

If I’m honest with myself, there are many times when I forget the need for humility. I can begin to think that everything is dependent on me, that I need to seek out and take for myself all the things I think I need. The truth is that our Heavenly Father is so good, and He desires to give every good thing to us, even more than an earthly father desires to give good things to his son or daughter.

But when our hands are already full and our hearts are already closed, when we are full of ourselves and concerned mostly with our own self-preservation, we become incapable of receiving the great gifts that God desires to give us.

Let us not fear that the Father will fail to fill us with every good gift when we humble ourselves before Him. Let us abandon ourselves to His goodness and seek nothing more than what He desires to give us.

I recall you daily in my prayers, and I continue to come before Jesus with humility, asking Him to conform my heart more and more to His Sacred Heart.

Peace, Father Steven Caraher