Dear Friends greetings and peace! The spring of the year greets all of us inviting you and I into new life. As I write this week I have the honor of collaborating on Hand of Help’s communication with Josef Jordan Jr. a young adult from San Diego who is our web master and in our formation program for Pilot Mentors. I asked Josef to share some of his thoughts on the passing of Pope John Paul and his hopes for Pope Benedict XVI. Hand of Help’s mission is to mentor young adults to lives of committed service. I find that in entering into this mission we the community of Hand of Help are also mentored by young people with whom we journey. Following then are some of Josef’s reflections:

Greetings to the community of Hand of Help. My name is Josef Jordan Jr. and I am happy to share with you a few reflections. The late Holy Father John Paul II has been claimed by the world as a global leader and spiritual guide. In his papacy he helped to bring down communism and challenge all of us to embrace the culture of life over the culture of death. John Paul II lived his life in the Spirit of God humbly turning to God everyday and in everyway.

In that same Spirit, I am seeking to also walk in humility. Over the last five years since graduation from high school and through college studies, service and volunteering have been part of my life. My involvement with Hand of Help is a blessing that helps me in my faith journey and formation in the spiritual life. Involvement in Hand of Help offers me formation and growth into Christ. The Rule of St. Benedict and Sister Joan Chittister’s book of commentary on the rule has touched me. On spirituality she writes: “Spirituality is not an escape from life. Spiritual leavens life. Spirituality is what stabilizes us in the middle of confusion and gives us energy to go on doing what must be done when the rest of life taxes and fatigues and separates us from our own resources.” As a committed Christian and spiritual mentor in training I have the opportunity to share faith and hope with others and receive their faith and hope.

I have high hopes that Pope Benedict XVI will stay connected with youth, as did Pope John Paul. The “National Catholic Reporter” writes that the new pope: “sees his life as a defense on human freedom.” This is assuring for me to read because of my own search for a Christian way of life in both the world and church. With current events such as wars, terrorism and church scandals young people are prone to doubts and crisis in faith. I know because I am one of those young people. My hope then for Pope Benedict XVI is that he will inspire young adults like me to love Christ, carry our crosses and build a better world.

Friends I am happy to share these few reflections with you and to collaborate with Brother Fred. I hope to share more in the future. Please take a look at our ever-developing web site at wwwhandofhelp.info. We welcome your comments and involvement. Over this year I plan to make the Hand of Help web site as interactive as possible. God bless you from the community of Hand of Help at Holy Trinity Monastery. Josef Jordan Jr., Father Henri Capdeville OSB, Mary McCarthy ob.OSB, Brother Fred Buerman ob.OSB

Dear Friends, greetings and peace! It is a joy to be in touch three weeks after Easter. The profound and wonderful events of Easter invite all of us to a radical joy. A fine example of the radical joy into which God calls us is the death and entry into eternal life of Pope John Paul II. I know that all of us have been taken these last few weeks into the majesty, drama and care of his life. Media coverage of the funeral in Rome coupled with the sharing of the John Paul's faith journey is a spiritual email we have all been receiving for the last few weeks. Gently in the Spirit, the Church begins the process of choosing our next Holy Father, Bishop of Rome. In the Spirit of this graced time one truth about John Paul II and his life guides and comforts. All life, all people are sacred, holy and special in the soul of John Paul II. This is a truth I now take each day into the faith journey of my own life.

Reflecting on the energy filled life of John Paul II as we have been doing perhaps in a small way deflects us from this great truth of his soul, the value of all life and people. John Paul II choose a life of radical love and commitment to God in the midst of some of the worse times of violence, brutality and evil that our human history records. His life in Poland as a young man and later as priest and bishop was lived in the midst of the twin plagues of Nazism and Communism. Day after day he saw people violated, brutalized and murdered. The toll of human life, cut short by the likes of Hitler and Stalin takes the mind to the edge of sanity. Yet in the midst of these unspeakable evils his life and words loudly sing and proclaim the words of the Liturgy: "all life, all holiness comes from YOU, .....Make us an everlasting gift to you." For me the message of John Paul's funeral attended by millions and watched by billions is that everyone one of us is radically loved by God, radically important to a God who stands as the Father in the Prodigal Son waiting to embrace us son or daughter as we come to the home of Father/Mother God. Friends may our week be filled with time for a God who is so deeply in love with all of us.

Next week the spiritual email will be given by our new web master Josef Jordan Jr. Josef is a young adult mentor for Hand of Help as well as our web master. I am happy to introduce Josef to you. I have asked Josef to reflect on Pope John Paul II from a young adult vantage point. Friends take a look at our inviting web site at www.handofhelp.info. Love and prayers from the community of Hand of Help at Holy Trinity Monastery. Brother Fred Buerman ob.OSB, Father Henri Capdeville OSB, Mrs. Mary McCarthy ob.OSB, Gabriel Hulsey, president of the board of Hand of Help and Josef Jordan Jr. webmaster Hand of Help.