My Dear Parishioners,

Great progress! We have received $208,000 in both cash and pledges towards goal of $300,000! May God bless you for your generosity!

Saint Paul says that “all things work for good for those who love God” (Romans 8:28). As things happened throughout history, the events of a nation, even disastrous ones, have always been and will continue to be steered by God for the accomplishment of His saving plan – for that nation, people, country, and ultimately, for the entire human race. Nothing happens by coincidence or by happenstance or by the luck of the draw of by chance! Nothing escapes God’s will. And the will of God is that He makes everything

work for the good of His people. We don’t have to curse our bad luck or fight back or cast blame or unleash our anger in order to make things right. God will make everything right. We have only to trust. We have only to surrender and God always takes care of the rest. God truly is the Lord of history.

“All politics is local.” It is also true that all history is personal! The history of a country, of a major movement, a revolution, a new epoch, a new -ism: it all begins with one person and his or her personal history. The beginning of Rome. The founding of Russia. The rise of Communism. World War II. But beyond all human and transient human history, there is the history of salvation in which is displayed the involvement of God in the world from the beginning. Think of the beginning of the chosen people with one man Abram, who decided

to obey God and leave his country to go to a new land. Think of the “tremendum mysterium” that is the irruption into time, the earth-shattering event of the Incarnation, the coming into the flesh of the Word of God that culminates in the Resurrection and thus the redemption of the entire human race and the reversal of the curse of Adam: it all began with the personal history of a young girl named Mary! The whole course of salvation history was set into motion by a simple Yes of a girl in an obscure place. All history is personal. Therefore, if God is the Lord of History, it’s because He is before all, the Lord of my personal history and the Lord of the personal history of everyone!

The way the history of salvation has unfolded is the way my life has unfolded: both under the same gaze of the one God! And the same God is Lord of both! We don’t have to curse our bad luck or fight back or cast blame or unleash our anger, trying desperately or resists violently to make things right. I am not saying we remain passive in front of evil. But in front of changes that are momentous for me, once I have discerned it is beyond my control to try to resist and protest, and especially once I have discovered it is God’s will that certain shall happen, I must obey!

But yet, for a true believer, no event of life happens without a reason or a purpose. An illness, a tragedy, a loss, a disappointment: all might have been the result of some prior foolishness or neglect or sinfulness or

rebellion. But should one repent and seek God’s will and obey Him, fully believing that if God has allowed life to take this turn, and vow to obey Him no matter what, ultimately, everything would become an occasion of grace, leading him to greater happiness!