Pastor's Desk Archive (May 2007)

Blessed Are The Women Who Give Us Life (5/13/2007)
Sharing Our Time & Talent Builds Up Our Faith Community (5-20-2007)
Veni, Sancte Spiritu (5/27/2007)

Blessed Are The Women Who Give Us Life (5/13/2007)

My mom and dad met at a skating rink sometime during the fall or winter of 1940. They must have fallen in love because they got married in April of 1941. Although I wouldn’t learn this until I was about 8, it turns out I was present at their wedding. They say that it usually takes 9 months for a baby to be born, but that the first one can come at any time. I’m proof of that since I came just six months later. How grateful I am to my mother for choosing life for me especially during a time when women were widely looked down upon for conceiving a child before marriage. How times have changed.

These days most parents go out of their way to urge their children to avoid conception in many cases until after finishing college and having a good job. Young people used to have to worry a lot about getting pregnant. This worry had the effect of discouraging sexual activity. Now there are parents who will put teenage daughters on birth control pills—just to make sure….and who supply teenage sons with condoms. The practice of sexual acts other than complete intercourse has become rampant among children as young as fifth graders. Since last fall, a “morning after” pill can be obtained for those who “forgot” to be cautious. And, worst of all, many are ready to resort to abortion when all else fails. All of these things, taken together, have contributed to a coarsening and denigration of life in which having more than two children is thought of by many as excessive. Any day now we can expect that text books will stop describing certain body parts as “reproductive organs” and begin referring to them as “pleasure producing organs”.

If Moms are not as appreciated these days as they were in the past, could it have something to do with how our culture debases women. They are made objects of lust and exploited for the sale of everything from toothpaste to pickup trucks. Think about it and then be good to Mom---all the time.

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Sharing Our Time & Talent Builds Up Our Faith Community (5/20/2007)

Next Sunday is Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. This was the Festival—50 days after Easter—on which the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles, disciples, and the mother of the Lord. It may be called the Church’s birthday because this was the day when Peter and the Apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, gave their first public testimony of faith which led to the conversion of thousands of believers. This was the day when they received spiritual gifts and put them into action.

All baptized believers have been given spiritual gifts which make it possible for them to put their faith into action. It is not enough to say that we believe in God, nor even enough to say that we love God. If you love me, Jesus said, you will keep my commandments….love one another as I have loved you so that all people will know that you are my disciples.

Jesus was specifically commanding the disciples to love the members of the church. One of the ways that we show this love for one another is by placing some of our time & talent—which are among our spiritual gifts—in the service of the community and its members.

Next weekend, following the homily at all of the Masses, each of us will be provided a Time & Talent Commitment Card so that we can indicate the ways we are willing to love and serve the Lord and one another during the year to come. Each family member is asked to complete a card including children who are old enough to serve Mass, to pass out bulletins, to help greet people, etc, can do so. You will find in this bulletin a list of the many ways in which you may choose to serve. I would ask that you take special note of the items in bold print as these are the most important needs we have at the present time. Look the list over carefully and prayerfully and come to Mass next weekend ready to be filled anew with the Holy Spirit and ready to express your faith into action.

We have a lot in common with most other Christians. The Nicene Creed which we profess on Sundays is also professed by the Orthodox, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Disciples of Christ. We have essentially the same Bible although we have an additional number of texts and parts of texts which even many Protestant communities believe are useful enough to be appended to their translations of the bible. We believe in one faith, one baptism, one God who is Father of all, lives in all, and who works through all. With the Orthodox, we share faith in the same priesthood and the same sacraments. To regard adherents of all these churches and communities as our brothers and sisters in Christ is a vivid expression of the unity which already exists among us. But there are important differences. Each group would be dishonest in not regarding themselves as distinctive in some regard. Below are just a few of the more important things that distinguish us from most other believers.

1. We are not a "denomination" or a "sect". We can make a convincing claim to be members of the one church founded by Christ and the Apostles in an unbroken line of succession.
2. We have an earthly leader in the Bishop of Rome—the Pope—who is the "Vicar of Christ" and the successor of Peter, the chief apostle.
3. We offer a genuine devotion (not worship) to Mary in whose womb the eternal Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. We believe her to be a powerful intercessor since the day she asked Jesus to help the wedding couple who had run out of wine.
4. We believe that our Risen Lord is present body and blood, soul and divinity, in the Holy Eucharist. We believe that he is really present so that in receiving Holy Communion He can transform us from the inside out.
5. We believe in a church leadership who can teach us authoritatively all that is necessary and helpful to our salvation.
6. We believe in a Sacred Tradition (that which is handed down) that comes in both written and oral forms. The most important written form is called The New Testament.
7. We believe that bishops and priests were given the authority to forgive sins by Christ on the night He rose from the dead.
8. We believe that we must follow the moral teachings of the Church in order to experience the full benefits of a life in Christ.

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Veni, Sancte Spiritu (5/27/2007)

Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your heavenly home
Shed a ray of light divine!

Come Father of the poor!
Come source of all our store!
Come within our bosoms shine!

You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul's most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;

In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat,
Solace in the midst of woe.

O most blessed Light divine
Shine within these hearts of Thine.
And our inmost being fill!

Where you are not, man has naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour Your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:

Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.

On the faithful who adore

And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;

Give them virtue's sure reward;
Give them Your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end.

Amen. Alleluia

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