February 8, 2004
If at first...
Bad
Weather Help
The cold, snowy, icy, rainy weather can keep some people from
going out and coming to church on Sunday. Here’s where we can help
each other. Is there someone in your neighborhood who could use a ride
to church? Why not reach out and invite him/her to ride with you when
you come on Sunday?
Celebrating
Sisters and Brothers
This
Sunday we’re celebrating the religious men and women who live and
minister in our midst. “Consecrated Life Day” is an annual
celebration of the men and women who have committed themselves to a
consecrated life, be it in a public life of ministry or a hidden life
of a monastery.
Our religious are very public -- in the midst of our parish family.
So please pray for our religious in a special way this week.
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:
Feb 1: Our Patron Saint
Jan 25:A View From Inside
Jan 18: Our School
Jan 11: Baptism with Fire
Dec28: Our Holy
Family
Dec 21: Home
For Christmas
Dec14: Meddling
Grace
Other Colums from 2003
Columns from 2002
There are at least two miracles into today’s
gospel (Luke 5:1-11). The obvious one is the big catch of fish. But that’s
proceeded by the miracle of the apostles obeying Jesus. After all, they
had just gotten to know him. He was a carpenter most his life. So when
this carpenter tells these professional fishermen how to fish, they could
have ignored him or argued with him. After all, what do carpenters know
about fishing -- plus they had been at it all night long and were tired
and probably cranky.
Yet, at the word of Jesus, they try again.
It seems that they did so full of doubts -- maybe they went out again
just to show him that he was wrong. I’m guessing this because when
they catch the great catch of fish Peter falls to his knees and says,
“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
There are lots of times in our lives when we work very hard and fail to
see success right away. We have self doubts. We’re tempted to quit.
Then Jesus sends us out again. We know that’s not easy. But our faith
assures us that Jesus doesn’t assign us to fruitless tasks. And we
know that he does not send us out alone. He’s out there fishing with
us...parenting with us...working with us...loving with us.
There’s one more dynamic in today’s
gospel that is important. Soon Jesus will stop sending the apostles out
fishing for fish. He’s now going to send them to fish for people.
Jesus does that with us too -- he looks at what we’re doing and then
calls us to go beyond that. There’s something new in our future and
in our prayer this week we can ask Jesus to make us open to this call.
It’s kind of exiting, isn’t it?
Since the time we were born, Jesus has known what he wants us to do in
our lives to be fulfilled and to advance the reign of God. If you haven’t
yet figured out what it is for you, maybe this is the week!
You are Person
