On Sunday, I attended Mass at All Souls\u2019 Parish, <\/a>the neighborhood parish in my hometown in the St. Louis suburbs. I knew no one but I felt at home. Sunday night I realized All Souls, a beautiful church by the way, is the only Catholic Church I ever attended with my mother: we went to a neighbor\u2019s wedding there in the mid-1960s. (<\/i><\/a>Pictured here in a photograph by Mark Scott Abeln, a convert) <\/a><\/i> Last Tuesday, a good friend\u2019s husband had a massive heart attack and miraculously survived. He made it to the hospital before the worst of the attack and they were able to revive him and insert a stent in a blocked artery. Such events jar us into the reality of the preciousness of life. We were visiting in the hospital family room when another friend arrived. This friend lost her husband to a heart attack a little over two years ago. Why does one man die and the other is spared? Why does one house remain standing in the path of the storm when all around are reduced to rubble? These and other such questions are those I\u2019ve learned to entrust to God. It\u2019s not easy, but I trust Him.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-RNDV99-qo3E\/TcB8zbF3k3I\/AAAAAAAAApc\/0yfS1Gc5cmA\/s200\/All%252BSouls%252BRoman%252BCatholic%252BChurch%252C%252Bin%252BOverland%252C%252BMissouri%252C%252BUSA%252B-%252Bexterior%252B4.jpg\")
<\/a>I\u2019ve been attending Mass almost weekly for more than three years. Yet the handful of Masses I\u2019ve attended since my confirmation at Easter Vigil have blown me away. Partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ makes me feel more a part of the Body of Christ than I could ever have imagined.<\/p>\n
<\/a>![](\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-hiRKKi5hks0\/TcCAmojUYcI\/AAAAAAAAApk\/_-E2UyRMv40\/s200\/bridgeton.jpg\")
<\/a>Driving through the tornado damage in the St. Louis suburbs of Maryland Heights and Bridgeton, which were hit with an E4 tornado on Good Friday, was sobering. I\u2019ve driven those streets countless times. The storm hit between my parents\u2019 house in Maryland Heights and the nursing home where Dad now lives in Overland. <\/p>\n
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