Dear Friends,

At the 10:30 AM mass on Mother’s Day the choir sounded beautiful – as always. They sang a piece I haven’t heard before, “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need.” Isaac Watts wrote the lyrics and I enjoy most of his work. Sometimes it gets a little weird when he has anthems to New England, but most of his pieces are purely religious.

The third verse of the hymn we heard last week struck me the most:

Your sure provisions gracious God

attend me all my days;

oh, may your house be my abode,

and all my work be praise.

Here would I find a settled rest,

while others go and come;

no more a stranger, nor a guest,

but like a child at home.

There’s often senses of pilgrimage and protection in Watts’ texts – assuredly because he draws on Scripture and lives on time of expansion and exploration. But there are also strong accompanying themes of completion, restoration and rest. The Lord is not only with us in the hard times – He is in our work, our rest and our homes as well.

Jesus came to give us access to our Father’s House, but He also came to be present in our homes and to give us the grace of joyful rest there. I pray that this summer each of us and all us may that joyful and restful feeling of a child at home.

In Christ, Fr. Joe