February 23, 2003
Sorrow Far and Wide
Handicapped
Parking
We
have a limited number of handicapped parking spaces behind the church
and parking (and walking) is especially difficult with all the snow.
A number of folks have asked me to request that we save these spaces
for people who need them. (For example, if you are driving a person
who is disabled, please bring them to the door and then park in the
regular parking lot.)
This
Cold and Snowy Winter
I’m
grateful to the dedicated folks who deliver our heating oil and who
plow the parking lot. They provide these services at very favorable
rates to the parish. Even with their generous help, I almost broke my
pen signing checks last week -- it cost the parish $10,000 for oil and
snow removal for the prior two weeks alone! (And that doesn’t count
this past week’s snow or heating!) I can’t wait for spring!
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Past Columns:
Feb 16: Saints
Feb 9: Columbia Lessons
Feb2: Giving At A Difficult
Time
Jan 26: Penny Power
& Catholic Schools
Jan19: Yet Another
Year
Jan 12: Stealing Jesus
Jan5: The Wise Still Come
From Afar
Columns from 2002
I’m writing this one week before you’ll
read it. The big “President’s Day Blizzard” hasn’t
happened yet and I’m about to take a trip through New England to
visit friends. (It’s a quiet week in the parish and I’m taking
advantage of that.) Some people wonder why I’d go to a place with
even more cold than Long Island. Well there’s a method to the madness.
If I went south to some place warmer, I’d only have the heartbreak
of facing winter a second time around. (Or I’d be tempted not to
come back til May.) This way, Long Island will seem “spring like”
compared to northern tundra.
But there’s a more personal reason.
(No, I don’t ski.) First I’ll be stopping off to see friends
from college. I make this “pilgrimage” every couple of years
because it’s hard to stay in touch with the busy-ness of our lives
and friendships are precious. I don’t want to lose touch. And then
I head into the “wilderness” of New Hampshire to visit other
friends who celebrated good news this past year. My friend was ordained
a deacon. He serves at a parish with only one priest. And then, on New
Year’s, tragedy struck. It was alleged that the parish priest had
molested someone 40 years ago. A day later they found the body of the
priest in the woods. He had killed himself.
So my friends called me then, and wondered
if I might come visit to help comfort and console them and their beloved
parish family. I had visited before, preached there, gotten to know some
of the folks there. As you read this, I’m still up there and will
return on Monday. The nearest priest to their parish is 50 miles away
and they asked if I could celebrate the masses in their parish this weekend.
Sure, I have to travel more than 50 miles, but it’s a little thing
that I can do in the face of this sadness that has affected not only Long
Island, but parishes far and wide.
I trust the prayerful hours in the car will
lead me to know what to say. I hardly know what to say here, I feel so
sad, angry and helpless in the midst of these troubles. But I have hope
in the Lord’s power to heal. I’ll ask the folks in New Hampshire
to pray for us on Long Island. Please pray for the folks up there too.
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