Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Today we have the beautiful reading from Isaiah in which our loving God provides the ultimate model of hospitality, “You who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come and eat! Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk!” In our transactional world, these words are a welcome respite. Our God invites us to come to Him, to feast at His table, and He demands no price.
It is not a coincidence that so much of our social interactions as human beings revolve around food and drink. Imagine a party without refreshments? Yet in this time of COVID-19, many of us have been unable to break bread together as we normally would. A FaceTime call or Zoom meeting is just not the same as visiting one another’s homes and sharing a meal or meeting at our favorite restaurant and sharing that experience not only with one another but with the greater public gathering there. This is certainly not something we will ever take for granted again.
We have also been unable to gather at large as a faith community for much of the past 4 and a half months. Despite this, the table of our Lord remains plentiful and open to all of us. However we attend Mass, either at home through the streaming Mass online, or on Sunday in our Central Courtyard, the table looks different, but the invitation from our God remains the same; come, you are welcome, I am happy to see you, you are loved.
Our God models the hospitality we strive to offer in the Church. We work to be a place where all feel welcome, where all feel loved and valued. This can be difficult, especially in these unprecedented times, when the usual ways we might express this are not available to us. I am inspired every day by the actions our community takes to stay connected, to continue to be the bread, broken for the world, that Jesus calls us to be. We follow the example of our creative God to find new and ingenious ways to extend the invitation to all of our community, “Come to the water!” Thank you for all you are doing to keep our community engaged, loving and vibrant.
I invite you to visit our website to view the streaming Mass, or to attend Mass outdoors in our Central Courtyard on Sundays at 8:30 am and 11:00 am to accept the invitation of our God to feast at His table and I ask for your continued support so that Carmel Mission may continue the important work of inviting all to the Supper of the Lord.
I wish you and your loved ones blessings of good health, refreshment and nourishment,
Fr. Paul
Please take a moment to read our Carmel Mission weekly bulletin.