Celebrating the Life of a Parish at 45

Many of our parishioners opened their doors this week to welcome evacuees from Hurricane Irma. The powerful storm drove residents out of Florida, South Carolina, and other parts of Georgia and into Alpharetta and Roswell. Several of them were amidst our congregation last weekend at Mass. One of them, a former St. Thomas Aquinas parishioner now living in Florida, said to me, “I don’t feel like an evacuee here, I feel like I have come home.”

Nearly fifteen-thousand people now call St. Thomas Aquinas home, a far cry from the handful of persons who started the parish 45 years ago. Most of us come from someplace else. From Boston to Brazil, Indiana to Indonesia, and Mexico to Manila, we have all chosen to come and to remain here at St. Thomas Aquinas.

Here we have found warmth in a smile and welcome in a greeting. Here we have been moved by the merest acts of kindness and we have formed friendships with persons whom we now call family. Here we have been affirmed and disturbed by the Word of God and we have been shaped by one another’s stories. Here we have struggled in our pain and we have leaned on each other in times of doubt and despair. Here we have seen the courage of one another’s faith and we have witnessed faith in action. Here we have been comforted by our traditions and our rituals and we have been challenged to reach beyond our comfort zones. Here we have buried our beloved and we have discovered what it means to die and to rise. Here we have laughed until our bellies ached and we have learned over and again how to love and how to forgive. Here we have come to recognize the Lord, and by God’s grace, we have become a community that is the temple of the Holy Spirit, God’s sacrament of hope for the world.

May God continue to shower our parish with abundant blessings!