News - May 2016 RSS Feed

My mother, God rest her soul, was a passionate gardener and a clever parent. She worked for many years as a night nurse, and her favorite recreation was working out in the yard after she got my sister and me from school in the afternoon.

When I was pastor in the Skagit Valley, the parish church in Mount Vernon was an attractive building, overlooking the valley across to the Olympic Mountains.

When Father Paul asked if I would give the homily on May 8, he said, “Mother’s Day, our parish feast day, the Ascension.” I assume his asking a woman, a mother, on this day had more to do with the first than with the other two.

Jesus says to his disciples: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” For all the talk of peace in our lives, in our church, in our world, I wonder if we really know what peace means in the promise of Jesus.