God, our hearts are broken

My latest blog

Monday Ministerial Musings

By Rev. Mark William Ennis

2024 Blog #12

March 18, 2024

God, our hearts are broken.

Hearts are broken in the nearby town of Dumont and in our town of Bergenfield. A fifty-four-year-old woman, Elizabeth Feliciano-Rosa, was struck by a truck and killed at a busy intersection in the nearby town of Dumont, which boarders our town of Bergenfield. All of this happened on Thursday evening during rush hour. The driver did not stop after striking her.

The next day, a ninety-four-year-old man from our town of Bergenfield was arrested for the hit and run accident. I have read no details about the circumstances of the accident or why the woman was hit. All that I have heard is that a young woman is dead, and a man has been arrested in connection with hitting her.

Another thing I know is that hearts are broken all over our area. Elizabeth was a popular grammar schoolteacher for twenty years in the local town of Englewood. Her children, now adults, grew up in Dumont and went to school in that town.  Everyone who knew her children, or knew Elizabeth is heart broken by this tragic death.

And so, we all ask the question, “why did God allow this to happen” but we will get no answer.

 We ask the question, “why to those who do so much good get taken from us too soon?” but we will get no answer.

Tragedies happen and we get no answers to the question, “why.” It would be comforting if we would get rational explanations to such events. If only such horrible events would have “meaning” to them, perhaps it would sooth the grief that so many are feeling now.

In our fallen world we will experience tragedies and get no explanations. We will experience grief. How do we deal with grief when it comes and find comfort?  Some find solace in companionship. Others find it in exercise or physical exertion. People of faith pray and know that God walks with us during our sadness.

I don’t know Elizabeth, but I pray for her family and all those people that her life touched. I don’t know the man who the police say hit her, but I pray for him as well. Elizabeth died too soon but she blessed many lives. The world was a better place because she was part of it.

There are many people who bless us every day. We don’t know how long they will be with us. Let us celebrate each day that these people are with us and let us imitate those people and bless all those whose lives interact with ours.

#ReformedChurchInAmerica                                 #PastorMarkAuthor.com                

#BergenCounty                                                        #BergenfieldNJ

#Dumont                                                                    #Bergenfield

#Tragedy                                                                   # Elizabeth Feliciano-Rosa

Please visit my new website, www.markwilliamennis.com

My New Blog: Celtic Hispanics

https://www.markwilliamennis.com/blog/celtic-hispanics

Monday Ministerial Musings

By Rev. Mark William Ennis

2024 Blog #11

March 11, 2024

Celtic Hispanics

Every year our town, Bergenfield, NJ hosts the county-wide St. Patrick’s Parade. Marching bands from all over our region converge to participate in this parade. Dance studios bring out those who have trained to be Irish Dancers. Of course, the police, firefighters, and ambulance corps always have prominent places for this event. Naturally, politicians, especially during election years, always wish to take center places up front so that they can be seen and identified with minimal effort by the parade audience.

Not for profit groups also march. There are always a variety of civic groups, boy and girl scouts, as well as little league teams. The parade, despite its Celtic roots, represents a broad mosaic of our community. Our congregation has marched every year, with very few exceptions. I can’t remember any other congregation marching in the parade. It has always seemed to be missed opportunities for congregations to let the town know that we are here.

This year, we are marching with a bit of a twist, our Hispanic New Church plant is joining our congregation. Nueva Vida en Cristo, is a new church plant that our congregation sponsors and which has begun to put down good, strong, roots. Our parade representation is now a hi-bred of traditional White Christians as well as Christian who are recent immigrants from Latin-America.

It might seem ironic that Hispanics are now marching in a traditionally Irish parade, but I wonder how many participants still have real Irish heritage. I have Irish roots, but I would bet that most parade marchers don’t. One of the joys of living in a diverse United States is that we all can celebrate the various ethnicities of one another.

And so it was that yesterday we traditional white people celebrated being Irish with Central and South Americans under the banner of being Irish. We let our town and our county know that there is a God in Bergenfield, and that God is worshipped by many different people from many different cultures, in many different languages.

God be praised!

#ReformedChurchInAmerica                                 #PastorMarkAuthor.com                

#BergenCounty                                                        #BergenfieldNJ

#St.Patrick’sDay                                                       #St.Patrick’sDayParade

#Outreach                                                                 #Multi-Cultural

Please visit my new website, www.markwilliamennis.com

My Newest Podcast

In this episode, Pastor Mark talks about a T-Shirt that he saw several women wearing and he comments on why more “Maine line” churches tend to have “church” shirts while more “evangelical churches have shirts emphasizing Jesus.

Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.

Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/1372803/