September 19th, 2004
New Year’s Resolution?
Padre
Pio
Did you ever meet a person who was later officially declared a saint
by the church? Members of our community and their families knew Saint
“Padre” Pio when they lived in Italy. There is a great devotion
among our parishioners to this saintly man who was declared a saint
by Pope John Paul II.
The Padre Pio Society in St. Brigid’s is constructing a prayer
garden that will feature a statue of Saint Pio . At the same time they
are widening the driveway at the rear of the church. Sometimes people
with disabilities park in that driveway because it is closer to the
church entrance, however this is dangerous because there is no way that
an emergency vehicle could get through. Sometimes people block each
other in. Widening the driveway should alleviate this problem. Thanks
to Giuseppe Sposito and the Padre Pio Society.
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:
September 12:Our New Priests
September 5: Got Two Hours?
August 29: In My Humble
Opinion
August
22nd: Hot Asphalt, Cool Church
August 15: A Big Assumption
August 8: Do It Anyway!
August 1: Parking Lot Joys!
July 25:"Doh!"
July 18: Taking Church Home
July 11: Seven Eleven
July 4th: Independence Day
June 27: God Bless Father
George
June 20: Our New Priests
June13:Missing you
June 6: Farewell Father
Leonard
May 30: Going & Coming
& Going
May 23: P.O.P.S.
May 16:
Celebrating Our
Parish
May 9: Facing the Future
May2: Resurrection Sequel
April 25: Chapel Design
April 18: Oh what a week!
April 11: Easter Life!
April 4: Palms & Passion
March 28: Plenty Good Room
March 21: More Passion
March 14: Reconciliation
March 7: A sequel from Mel?
Feb 29: Come to
Life!
Feb 22:
An Adventure to Life
Feb15: A rose
by another name?
Feb 8: If at first...
Feb 1: Our Patron Saint
Jan 25:A View From Inside
Jan 18: Our School
Jan 11: Baptism with Fire
Colums from 2003
Columns from 2002
This
week we celebrate “Catechetical Sunday”. Over the last decade
or so our church has used the word “catechist” instead of
“religion teacher” and has talked about “catechesis”
instead of “CCD” or a “Religion Program.” The
root word for Catechist comes from a Greek word that means to “instruct”
but the instruction is not merely passing on information (like giving
directions to a place or printing out a set of Mapquest directions), but
rather it’s more like accompanying the person to the new place.
In this case the “new place” is deeper faith in Jesus, a more
loving and peaceful and happy life. (Wouldn’t we all want that!!
Then of course we need catechists.)
The earliest tradition of catechists
comes out of the church’s African heritage. There some very important
writings at the time of St. Augustine as he helps the catechists in North
Africa overcome some of the obstacles to being good catechists. One of
the things he is insistent about is making a connection between what people
learned from the catechist and what they celebrated at mass each week
and how they lived their lives each day.
Those concerns have followed us down to this millennium. It’s so
wonderful to see over a thousand children in our Religious Education each
week -- but then on Sunday we miss seeing them and their families. People
get so excited about bringing their children to first communion (and rightly
so) but then so many stop there --”second communion” might
not happen til the next Christmas.
As we begin this new school year
I’d like to encourage families with children to make a “new
year’s resolution” to come to Sunday mass each week. It’s
a tradition as old as the commandments (“Keep Holy the Lord’s
Day”) and a tradition as fresh as this Sunday. Look what happens
when we’re all together in prayer -- we worship God together...we
are fed by God’s word....we receive the Body and Blood of Christ...we
have a renewed sense of how God loves us and how we can love each other.
You are Person
