"A Journey of Hope"
Estela Manancero
Sunday, June 25th 2006

We do not have the text of Estela's homily, however we do have the reading Fr. Jim Cassidy quoted:

When Things Fall Apart
by Pema Chodron

Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

When we think that something is going to bring us pleasure, we don't know what's really going to happen. When we think something is going to give us misery, we don't really know if it will. Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all. We try to do what we think is going to help. But we don't know that it will. We never know if we're going to fall flat or sit up tall. When there's a big disappointment, we don't know if that is the end of the story. It may be just the beginning of a great adventure.