Past Student Update: Steve White

From Steve White, SPES Alumnus 2004:

Habemus infantem! Little Chiara was born on Sunday August 16. She and her mother are doing very well. SPES and all the work of the parish remain in our daily prayers. I was blessed enough to spend eight months at SPES from 2003-2004 (it was called COMMISSION back then). My time in St. Patrick’s changed my life. Ask anyone who knows me, they will tell you the same. I went there looking for a way to do some good while I figured out what to do with myself after college. What I found was a profoundly deepened love of Christ. Encountering Christ always demands of us a response. SPES was not easy. In fact it was in many ways the most spiritually challenging time of my life. Yet for those eight months I was given the great grace of living in a community that was truly Christ-centered, not just as an idea, but as a matter of fact. Christ was literally and physically the center of everything we did. Daily Eucharistic adoration and Mass are the engine of SPES. It was there that I came to understand what it means to call the Eucharist the true “source and summit” of the life of the Church. It was there that I experienced what I already thought I knew: that without Christ we can do nothing. SPES didn’t make me a saint…just ask my wife. But it did convince me beyond all doubt that being with Christ is worth striving for, worth fighting for every stumbling day, even if it costs me everything. No doubt it will. Steve White

Summer work

Summer is generally quiet for SPES and St Patrick's - but not this summer! Roadworks in front of and to the side of the Church provide a noisy backdrop for our liturgical life and office work. Jackhammers and tarmac cutters sometimes make it difficult to hear readings during Mass. As if that weren't enough, preparatory work for the parish's renovation project - set to begin properly later this year - has started within the church itself. The photo above shows a plastic 'room' in the nave, enclosing the excavations. As you can see, it rather obscures the sanctuary, so we've had Mass at the Sacred Heart altar for a few days - rather fitting for the Year of The Priest.