How often do you feel alone, or even like the world is against you? A 2024 American Psychiatric Association poll found that 1 in 3 American adults felt a sense of loneliness at least once a week, and 1 in 10 say they are lonely daily. The numbers are even more stark when we further segment the list: according to a 2021 Harvard report, 61% of young people aged 18-25 and 51% of mothers with young children expressed that they feel lonely “frequently” or “almost all the time.” If you struggle with a sense of being alone and that the world is against you, you are decidedly not alone. If anything, our culture breeds this feeling. Walk down the street, ride the bus, or walk through a store, and you will observe a sea of people with their heads buried in their phones. The manufactured digital world we have created, while comforting in some ways, separates us from one of the most important aspects of being human: relationship.
This, however, is the remedy to the ache of loneliness: relationship, the very thing we avoid in our digital age. The greatest and most vital relationship for us to foster as we face this ache and the sense that the world is against us is our relationship with God. As the Psalm today exemplifies, when we have a relationship with the LORD, we can go to Him when we feel the world closing in around us. We can go to Him in “the time of favor” (Ps 69:14). He hears us and will not turn us away because of His love for us. A love so great, He sent His Son as a gift to us to wrench us from the clutches of sin and death. This is the message we are called to share with others: that we have a Father who loves us, who is there with us in our distress and in our joys. In that love, found in our Catholic faith, the Church, and in one another, we discover what we are made for: a place to rest in God our Father, and a place to belong among our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Beginning that journey can feel daunting, especially if you are not sure where to start. Here at OLP, Alpha is a place designed for exactly that: a space to explore faith, ask honest questions, and find community with others who are on the same road. If you are searching, or know someone who is, we would love to have you join us when our next season begins this fall.
James Pike
Director of Parish Life
