Dear friends of Fr. Benedict,

From Trinity Retreat

Monday, May 31, 2004

Just a few days ago I returned to the Trinity Retreat House where I have worked
for 32 years. It was deeply moving for me to walk into the beautiful chapel and to see
what a wonderful job Fr. Gene Fulton and the staff has done in my absence. I’m
extremely grateful to them. I said to myself as we drove along, I’m going home and yet I
had a strange feeling when I walked in that I was not home. If there is anything that I
learned during the long period of hospitalization, is that this world is not our home, it is a temporary place where we work out our salvation in union with Christ, but it is not our home. Our home is the house of Our Heavenly Father and we open ourselves only to grief, sorrow, and disappointment when we make this world our home. The world is beautiful. Life can have many beautiful things; it can also have many terrible misfortunes. A person is prepared for all of them if he remembers that this is not our home, but that we seek a world that is to come.

Let us continue to pray for each other!

Father Benedict
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Dear Father Benedict, You are in my daily prayers and remeberance in mass. Thank you for the messages and updates. Sincerely, - Fr. Tom Sodano,

Dear Fr. Groeschel, I am so happy to see & hear how well you are doing. I have visited your site everyday since your accident. I feel like I am visiting with an old friend. You bring comfort to all those who need to be comforted & hope to the hopeless. Thank you for still being there with us even in you pain & suffering. Fr. Ben, how is you elbow healing? We haven't heard anything about it in a while. May God continue to bless you, his faithful child. Melanie P.S. LA stands for Louisiana, not Los Angeles. - Melanie, Metairie, Loa Angelas

Dear Father, I can't begin to tell you how good it feels to have found out about you on Telecare. I'm 25 and look forward to wacthing you. You are so inspiring to me and renew the Spirit of God in me each time. We love your sense of humor, especially about "sitting on the couch like a couch potato, half alive..." You are so right on when you talk about Christ and the Holy Spirit. I wish that you were on more often in the day. I aslo terasure whe you said how we shouldn't run away from the Book of Revelation, but embrace it for it's the "new creation." The last two chapters are endeared by myself. I hope that you get better real soon as I pray for you when I say the rosary. I also wear the Brown Scapular and have developed a strong devotion to Our Lady. I also love Padre Pio, whom I have an original picture of from a relative. Get well! - Jack, Wantagh, New York

Please tell Fr Benedict that the Legion of Mary at St Thomas More church is praying for him. I am also praying he can come to the SCRC convention in Anaheim this September. - Susan, Irvine, California

Dear Fr. Benedict, I have been praying hard for you and watching your little messages on line. Thank you for being the Face of Jesus for us. How we long and need to see that witness! God bless you and keep you. Thank you again and again. In our Lady, - Sr. Emmanuel fsp, Boston, Mass.

Dear Fr. Benedict and all responsible for the website; I can't begin to express my gratitude to all of you for your faithfulness
and prayers for all of us who visited the website for the daily updates on Fr. Benedict. It has been a source of joy and sometimes sadness to read the many emails that were posted from around the world. What a wonderful Church we have in
Jesus! That even a modern tool such as the internet can be used for the glory of God and His Church. This is one person who longed to hear father's messages in Kearny, but rejoiced that I could see father's picture and read his messages. Thanks be to God for father's recovery. What a journey - I can't wait to read the book! With love and prayers for full recovery, especially the use of your arm, Sunday. - Marie, from New Jersey

Dear Fr. Benedict, I pray the Memorare for you very frequently. We need you. Get well soon. God bless you. You are a good example of a holy one suffering. I think of you when I am overwhelmed with the pressures of life. God love you, - Helen, Thank you! Your message of May 26th clarifies and confirms my understanding of purgatory. I have never sensed that purgatory is that which WAS taught to me as a youngster growing up in the 50's. Purgatory being a mini-hell while being cleansed of our sins just didn't make any sense to me. Your stating purgatory as part of "our journey" home to Heaven confirms my personal beliefs on the purpose of purgatory, and the cleansing process that radiates the love of our heavenly Father. I've always visualized it as a journey of this sort, that spirals up to heaven. Hence, my love for spirals. Thank you again for His words, moving through you. May you continue to be blessed with His grace. - Chetner, Cooperstown, New York

Dear Fr Groeschel, How wonderful to know you are back home! How good to know you are still with us to teach us and keep us on the 'straight and narrow' and that you will continue to instruct us with your words of wisdom. Keep telling us, please, of God's love and reminding us that all of us have a place in heaven, all ready for us, if we can but want it. Ad multos Annos, Fr Groeschel!!! and God Love You Always. - Dorrie, Guardamangia,, Pieta' MALTA

Send your greetings to Fr. Benedict

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