Beyond My Control and Understanding

Note:  Apologies are in order for the absence of yesterday's slice of bread.  I waited for close to a half an hour for the installation and configuration of 16 "Updates."  Does anyone know what they do?  The computer doesn't work any faster; nothing seems to change.  So, time ran out and "God Nation:" never got written or sent in time for your Friday Spiritual Nourishment.  Below is the gist of what I had intended to write:

It seems that the Archdiocese of Chicago is planning to close 100 parishes and schools, due to dwindling populations, deterioration of old buildings, and impossible costs of their restoration and maintenance. All hard facts.  On the soft side are the histories of how these, in many cases--such as St. Adalbert's, one of the Gateways to Pilsen, a once large Polish neighborhood-- magnificent churches came to be built:  with the pennies and nickels of immigrants who generously sacrificed to build replicas of the churches they knew in "the old country."  Towers, bells, marble, soul-stirring organs:  nothing was too good for the House of God. Weddings , baptisms, first communions, confirmations, funerals for generations of people tied them closely to their churches.  Vatican II declared that "we are the church", rightly so, and the church building is a tangible extension of the "we". The pain of closing, de-consecrating, and often, demolishing churches is real, undeniable and understandable. However, Jesus did not become man to establish a kingdom of beautiful buildings. He came to show his amazing love for us by making himself our brother, but also by becoming our food. St. Augustine describes it this way:  "No nation is so great at the Christian people, nor any to whom God has come so close as to us.  we feed upon God." (quoted in Magnificat, April, p. 198). If we turn our energy and attention to being a "God Nation", then no debt, no deterioration, no power can take that away from us.
Bro. Rene