MESSAGE FROM FR. NICK

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I thank you all for the wonderful Meet-and-Greet last Sunday. The atmosphere was great,  and many wonderful conversations took place. We shared faith, hope, love and joy, and I had the opportunity to get to know a few more wonderful people of our parish.  It was a time of  real community characterized by trust, curiosity, and a wish to journey together as a Church, as a Christian family. I felt appreciation and love, for which I am incredibly grateful.
In this Sunday’s Gospel text Jesus speaks about the kingdom of God using parables. One of the parables is about a man who sowed good seed in his field, and an enemy sowed weeds in the same field.  Instead of pulling the weeds up prematurely - which would damage the wheat - the farmer lets both grow until harvest, when the weeds are burned and the wheat is gathered.
The image of the good seed and the weeds is a reminder that God’s good seed does grow.  It grows in the presence of weeds, it develops despite being surrounded by weeds.  It grows quietly yet powerfully.

This parable teaches us that to grow spiritually requires real world struggle. A faith that never encounters challenge, opposition or discomfort will remain shallow, fragile and unfruitful.  Our Church Fathers remind us that Christians grow best in the presence of pressures, not the absence of them.  Our parish, our families, our places of work and our communities are not perfect.  That is why we should be grateful to God that our faith is alive and active despite the distractions, temptations, challenges, and suffering that we experience in our environment.  Let us continue to pray not so much for a weed-free life as for deeper roots; God often uses the weeds to grow the seed.

While God is the ultimate source of all growth, we are called to be  active partners in His work. That is why faith continues to bloom whenever believers gather, listening to one another with profound patience, steadfast faith, and genuine joy, as experienced  during our Meet-and-Greet.

Thank you for being an important part of our beautiful OLS family!

I wish you a grace-filled week!

Fr. Nick Apetorgbor