Welcome Home!
Did you feel the space as you came through the foyer? Did you look up as you entered the nave and see the beautiful ceiling, now white and duck-egg blue? Did your eyes look to natural coloured Oamaru stone, the painting of the Sacred Heart and then lower to the Annunciation Altar, and the mosaic tiling? Did you notice the feeling of lightness and spring?
We have been on a journey. It could be termed a pilgrimage! Since the Cathedral was closed in 2018 the parish has gathered at St Paul’s, at St Mary’s College, at St Thomas More’s, and always in our own Connolly Hall Chapel.
It can be exciting to be away, to experience new things, different settings and scenes, yet there is something about coming home.
Not every language has a word with the connotation of the English word, ‘home’. Most languages have a word that names the dwelling in which people live, such as house or residence, yet home brings to mind and heart so much more. There is a warmth to the word ‘home’, which is beyond description. It is more a ‘felt reality’. For us, the People of God, the church is the home in which we gather, to celebrate special days and ordinary days, to welcome new sisters and brothers born into the family, to pray with those who are on their final journey and to celebrate every ‘time’ in between. Day by day, week by week, year by year we are at home with each other as the sisters and brothers of Jesus.
Just as a family home depends on the warmth of family life, so too the warmth of the church family is what truly warms the gathering of the faithful. No matter the heat inside a building, that will not provide the warmth that makes a home. That warmth can only come from the people, the People of God, you and I as we reach out to each other.
Over this weekend we will express our thanks to many. We will gaze with delight at all the creativity that has been unleashed. We will notice aspects which are still to be completed or may need further tending. Yes, we are home. In this time may our hearts notice that throughout this pilgrimage of some six years the Lord has always been at home in us, and we have made our home in Him.
How good it is to be home, and how good it will be to welcome others home, whether they are new to the parish or returning. Welcoming all to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and to St Mary, his mother.
With prayers, patrick
