The House of God

I learned many valuable lessons as a seminarian at Saint Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana. During my six years there, I grew to love the Benedictine spirituality and how they live their motto of "Ora et Labora", "Prayer and Work". We all know that we need prayer in our lives and we need to use that gift everyday and hopefully many times during the day! On the campus map at Saint Meinrad, all the buildings were numbered so people could find their way around. The number one building on campus is the Archabbey Church. That is where the monks and faithful can gather to pray and be renewed to live their lives and faith to the fullest. Since I became a pastor several years ago, I put the number one building into focus. Whenever parishioners would talk about projects that needed to be completed I would say, "Let's focus on the church because it is God's House and we need to keep it looking beautiful because God deserves the best." The church building is our central place for worship and prayer. As Jesus said in the gospel for today, Luke 19:45-48, when he was driving the money-changers out, "My house shall be a house of prayer..." The church is the House of God, it is a house of prayer!!! It is a great joy to see people come into church at all different times of their day just to spend a little time with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament or to light a votive candle. We have a rich history with wonderful customs and traditions. For ourselves, we are temples of the Holy Spirit and we pray that we can keep ourselves beautiful and pleasing to God. Many people express pride in their churches. May we do what we can to keep God's House looking beautiful and always keep it as a house of prayer!!! God Bless You!!!