Beginning last autumn, and each week since, our faith community has focused on Rising to Hope as a guiding light and as a powerful reminder of a basic tenet of our faith.
We began during the Season for Social Justice, focusing on Care of God’s Creation and throughout the programs, forums, and films of the Justice Initiative. The energetic youth in Foundations and Blueprints raised funds for their service trips. Community Outreach groups held a Keep the Faith Info Fest that was visited by more than 600 Old St. Pat’s members.
From Family Ministry to Beloved, from Young Adult Ministry to Connections, Encore, and the Crossroads Center, the spirit of Hope brought us a little further along in fulfilling our role in building the Kingdom of God, set fire to our imaginations and gave us food for thought: what is left undone, what is still possible?
In Advent we waited in joyful hope, celebrating birth and new beginnings. During Lent — the time from Ashes to Easter, we died to those things in our life that were holding us back, knowing change — and resurrection — are possible when we put our faith in the hope promised to us by Jesus Christ.
Hope is more than optimism. It is more than a lucky hunch. It is faith personified. Hope asks us to take heart in and act upon that which was so beautifully expressed by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.
Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime;
Therefore, we are saved by hope.
Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense
in any immediate context of history;
Therefore, we are saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone.
Therefore, we are saved by love.
The journey of faith, hope, and love continues. Our pastor, Rev. Tom Hurley, invites the entire Old St. Patrick’s community to gather — like the apostles did before us during that first Pentecost — at 10 a.m. on Sunday, May 18, 2008. This is a
wonderful opportunity for all of us to be present together as a community and to rise to the hope of a church and faith community that says, Yes.
This spirit-filled and bold celebration of the Eucharist will take place at the UIC Forum, 725 W. Roosevelt Road, Chicago. Join us for this Pentecost moment. It truly would not be the same without you.