The door is open! Sometimes it may seem narrow to us, but it is open!
"How lovely are your tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, yea, even faints for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Blessed are they that dwell in your house: they will be still praising you. Selah. Blessed is the man whose strength is in you; in whose heart are the ways to them. O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusts in you." (Sl. 84 (83))
The Church, as the People of God with Christ as its head, in which every baptised person is a member of his body, the churches as visible buildings constructed in space and time, the online "sites" of the Church where so many knock on the door in our day, all these different and complementary realities will always be a sign of the presence of God who has come to dwell among people.
Welcome, then, to the Igreja da Graça! Welcome to the Parish of Graça (Santo André and Santa Marinha)! Welcome to the Parish of São Vicente de Fora (São Vicente, São Tomé and Salvador)! Both, for historical reasons, are now based here! The physical building of the church or this online "site", as we wish and for which we are here, are a sign, they are an open door, they are an instrument for a
"pilgrimage" aimed at meeting the One who wants to make us his dwelling place. The door is open! Sometimes it may seem narrow, but it is open! He has already come to look for us and to meet us. It's up to us, in the present time, to take the right steps towards meeting him and each other! Now, on earth, and forever in heaven!