Happy
Summer!
This time of
year the trees are filled with leaves and the flowers (not
to mention the pollen) are so filled with color and life
after the Winter season with its muted tones.
It is a time of life and warmth and the desire to be
outside in the heart of nature.
It is also the time we celebrate holidays like the
Fourth of July and Independence.
Those who came here had to be independent and, at the
same time, interdependent.
They needed to count on themselves and the
communities in which they lived.
They needed to farm together and gather together and
hunt and do so many things for their survival.
From the beginning of our beautiful country’s
independence, people always had the wisdom to be
interdependent.
That wisdom is still so much in need.
As
the years go on with the Sacred Hearts missionaries, we
realize that we are fewer and older, perhaps bolder and
wiser, but yet, still fewer, and we recognize more than ever
our need for interdependence.
We celebrate our history with the development of the
Church in Japan, in the Bahamas, in India and in the
Philippines.
Over the years we have and still continue to serve with our
personnel and finances.
Now as missions come of age, we celebrate the
reaching out of some of our younger members to share in our
life and missions in the States, at least for a while.
Recently, Fr. Subal Nayak, ss.cc. our first religious
and ordained priest from India, arrived in the United States
to spend an extended time with us over the coming year.
How wonderful to see “our young ones” come to join in
ministry and life with us; our sense of family pride and
love is so strong and real.
It makes all of us grow more convinced that our efforts in
proclaiming the Gospel of our Lord Jesus, and our special
dedication and devotion to God’s Sacred Heart in Jesus and
the motherly love in the heart of Mary, are so important in
helping to feed the spiritual hungers of our world.
We
are truly an interdependent world, although we often act as
if we are not.
We are connected in the desire for the good of all God’s
people. We
certainly need each other.
We can do together what we could never do alone.
As we celebrate independence and freedom, let us
remember with joy that we are free to choose to live as a
connected and interdependent people with all God’s children.
An interdependent world... How blessed are we to
be free to be one!
God bless and love,
Fr. Stan Kolasa, ss.cc.
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