CSF April 2023: Healing

The true grace of Life-Giving Wounds

By Rod Linhares

Director of Mission Advancement for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

“The true grace of the Life-Giving Wounds ministry is that before attending the retreat, I’d always thought I was alone in feeling this way. Now I know I’m not. While I realize there is more work to do, I am empowered to move forward.” Those are the words of a participant at the Life-Giving Wounds retreat, an archdiocesan ministry that is funded in part by your support of the Archdiocesan Annual Appeal.

The Life-Giving Wounds ministry helps heal, restore and provide peace of mind to adults of all ages affected by their parents’ divorce. Retreatants have ranged in age from 18 to over 60. Another retreat participant said, through tears, “my parents’ divorce was so traumatic that I didn’t even know if I believed in love.”

You support Life-Giving Wounds and many other critical ministries through the annual appeal. By responding to God’s call to stewardship and grace and participating in the annual appeal, parishioners throughout the Archdiocese come together in supporting youths and young adults, social ministries,

clergy, parish ministries and schools, the greater Church, and our pastors and parishes in financial and human resources efforts, to cite just a few examples. Your gift has a tremendous impact.

Consider the impact you have on an adult who remains affected by his or her parents’ divorce and think about how your generosity can help change his or her life. Now take another moment and imagine the consequences if this support weren’t there. Would he or she simply continue feeling alone? How, or when, would he or she work through the trauma they may have carried since childhood? In addition to your financial support, you provide something else perhaps just as important – the knowledge that people care.

The theme for this year’s annual appeal is “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path.” By following Christ’s word, we pursue the path on which we demonstrate our faith. We do so in countless ways, and one of these is through participating in the annual appeal. The complete list of the appeal’s benefits, as well as this year’s five-minute video, may be found on the archdiocesan website (sfarch.org/aaa).

Our mission as people of faith is ongoing, and the needs remain urgent, so we invite you to join thousands of others throughout the Archdiocese and consider your own gift to the annual appeal. All gifts are greatly appreciated, very beneficial and a tangible expression of your commitment to bringing Christ to others. You make a real difference.