November 23, 2003
Giving Thanks
"Thou
Shalt Not Steal"
Each week we
wonder where our missallettes are going. We put out hundreds in the
chapel and in the church andwithin a few weeks, they
disappear. What’s odd is that when a new edition is put out, all
of a sudden, the old ones
re-appear! Could it be that people are taking them home, and then when
they are outdated they are bringing them back? This theory is both encouraging
and
disheartening. Encouraging because obviously people want to pray with
the Word of God at home. Disheartening because they’re
taking for themselves what belongs to everyone.
Hint: Ask for a
personal missal as a Christmas gift! You can then use that at home.
Or click on www.usccb.org
to see the daily readings. .
At College?
At St. Brigid’s we like to stay in touch through
e-mail “letters from home.”
Once a person has an e-mail address at school (or if he/she uses a personal
address), please let us know what it is so we can include them when
we write.
Here's a handy college link so you
can send this info online.
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past Columns:
Nov 2: A New
Look
Oct
26: Blessed Mother Teresa
Oct
19: The Future of Our Youth
Oct
12: In Hot Water
Oct
5: Fruits of the Millennium
Sept
28: Jesus Comes To St. Brigid's
Sept
21: The children will lead us
Sept
14: Triumph of the Cross
Sept
7: Nine-eleven: Two Years Later
August
31: Where the Summer went
August
24: Lessons from the Blackout
August
17: Here and There
August 10: Surrender
August 3: Reaping
Rewards
July 27:
What's your mission?
July 20:
From a Deserted Place
July 13: Nothing
for the Journey
July 6: God
at Home
June 29: Going
in Stages
June 22: Sommer
in the Summer
June 15: Our
Newest Priest Ordained
June 8: The
Feast of Pentecost
June 1: Beyond
First Communion
May 24: Felicidades
Manuel
May 18: Twenty
Years Later
May 11: Bows
for Peace
May 4: Upcoming
Ordinations
April 27: One
Heart One Mind
April 20: Amazingly
Graced Days
April 13: Ashes
to Palms
April
6: God Embedded
March
30: Pastoral Visits
March
23: Turning Tables
March
16: Transfiguring Imagination
March
9: Beasts and Angels
March
2: Lent and Imagination
Feb
23: Sorrow Far and Wide
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
Most Americans remember the first thanksgiving
as a multi-cultural meal between “Pilgrims and Indians” but
most don’t know that the first Catholic thanksgiving took place 55
years earlier than the gathering at Plymouth Rock. On September 8, 1565
a group of Spanish explorers gathered for mass with members of the local
Indian tribe to thank God for the first settlement, now known a St. Augustine,
Florida. The common thread at both Thanksgivings was that people from
different lands came together under God to give thanks and to take steps
to live together in peace and harmony.
That was not an easy task. The pilgrims were
not the most
tolerant people (their writings tell that they were anti-Catholic) and
they looked upon the Wampanoag Tribe with suspicion. The Spaniards came
not for religious freedom, but to conquer new worlds. The Native Americans
were worried about those who had come to their land and were taking over.
So I guess that Thanksgiving at St. Brigid’s
is as traditional as you’ll ever find -- we gather together at one
table on Thanksgiving morning in the Eucharistic tradition of the Catholic
Spanish explorers, in the American tradition of people with different
languages and cultures gathering to thank God. Not many parishes have
this opportunity to be so faithful to our earliest American roots.
So I invite you to start Thanksgiving morning
by bringing your family to our feast at 9am. It only takes an hour (so
you can be home and cookin’ in time) but it is one of the most joyful
expressions of who we are as Americans and as a parish. Perhaps the kids
won’t understand every word when we sing God’s praises in different
tongues -- but that’s part of the tradition. The “Pilgrims and
Indians” didn’t understand each other too well either. Yet that
first awkward dinner has become so enshrined in our hearts that wave after
wave of
immigrants have embraced this feast and it has embraced them. Come and
let us give thanks to the Lord together!
You are Person
