A Note From Father Rob

I was born in Glendale, California, which is adjacent to Altadena, one of the communities devastated by the unprecedented wildfires running rampant through the hilly countryside in Los Angeles County. I have seen the hillsides on fire many times before, but never like this.

Most of the fires I personally witnessed stayed up in the mountains, at least for the most part. I remember one fire that came into the residential area of Tujunga Canyon, one of the entrances to Angeles National Forest. I had family members who lived in the canyon and owned horses. We helped evacuate the horses just before the fire arrived. My brother-in-law and his brothers stayed with the house and saved it from the fire using garden hoses. None of his neighbors were so lucky.

Of course, that fire was nothing like what we are seeing now. In the fires we see covering Southern California now, scenarios like that are being played out thousands of times over. Families have had only minutes to gather up their most precious possessions and run for their lives – only to return days later to learn everything they have worked for, saved for and built is lost. It’s hard to even imagine.

Please keep the tens of thousands of people affected by this tragedy in your prayers. Pray for the first responders who put their lives on the line for the rest of us and pray for those who must now pick up the broken and charred pieces of their lives and start anew. May God give them the strength they will need to put their lives back together.

Rob+