The fires in Altadena and Pacific Palisades were two months ago.

Just imagine what life must be like for those who lost everything or are displaced…

A good friend of mine is the school principal of a school that welcomed about 30 students who were from schools that the fire closed. He was telling me about a parent who told him that they have had to move 7 times so far since losing their home. Imagine…

Another parent shared her story of the trauma of that night, evacuating twice, and now suffering from terrible guilt because yes, her family is displaced, but their home didn’t burn down when all the others on their street did. Imagine…

Yesterday after work here, I drove out to help work on a retreat my friend did today for their 7^th and 8^th graders, several being the kids who just transferred in and are displaced from their homes.

We ended up working until 9 p.m.

This school is in Sierra Madre, at the base of Mount Wilson.

The night air was brisk as I walked up a hill to my car.

I looked up at the sky and could see hundreds of stars.

Straight in front of me was the huge black outline of Mount Wilson.

A verse from this coming Sunday’s Gospel reading came to my mind.

Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. Luke 9:28b

Part of the retreat for those 7^th and 8^th graders today was to “take them up a mountain to pray with Jesus”. Not literally of course, but to enable them to have the time and space to simply be with Jesus, to know of His presence with them.

As I write this to you, I know the retreat is now over.

I pray that it went well for those kids.

I pray for all of you too.

From the crazy stress life can bring to fires – we all have something.

I pray that we hear Jesus’ invitation to “go up a mountain with Him to pray,” to simply be with Him and feel His loving presence.