September
4 , 2005
Spreading
the Faith
Not
Gum Holders
The re-finished pews are being reinstalled and already they are beginning
to amass a new collection of chewing gum. Well that calls for a gentle
reminder that church pews are not gum holders. We’ve got garbage
pails just outside the doors of church and we ask you to please deposit
gum there before entering church.
The church looks bright and clean after the summertime paint job and
we invite everyone to keep it looking like this into the future.
Hurricane
Katrina
Gum seems to be such a petty thing to be writing about in view of the
horrid conditions the victims of hurricane Katrina are experiencing
...no clean water...no medicine ...death... spreading disease...loss
of homes... We can hardly imagine. We’ll pray for them and next
weekend we’ll take a special collection to aid the victims!)
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past Columns:
August 28:World Youth Day
Words
August 21: Dressing Up
August 14: Harsh
Words
August 7: Tiny Whispering
Sound
July 31: Welcoming Rob
July 24:Wedding Bells
July 17: Summer Weeding
July 10: Ministry to Seniors
July 3: The Painters are
Coming!
June 26: The Last 25%
June19: Sommer in the
Summer
June 12: Great News Anoying
News
June 5: What's Essential
May 29: Setting Priorities
May 22: Painting Project
May 15: We are the Church
May 8:Mother of the Church
May 1: On Life and Death
April 24: Habemus Papam
April 17: The Spirit Abounds
April 10: Two men on a journey
April 3: He's baaack!
March 27th: Not the best
news...yet
March 20th: What are You
Doing For Easter?
March 13th: The Stench
March 6: To Tell or Not
To Tell
February 27: Dry Mouth Dry
Soul
February 20: Good to Be
Here
February 13: And he was
hungry?
Ash Wednesday '05
February 6: Ashes Already?
January 23: Catholic Schools
Week
January 16: Continued Charity
January 9: Migration
January 2:All is bright?
Columns from 2004
Columns from 2003
Columns from 2002
How
well do you feel our children are learning our faith?...living our faith?....
“catching” our faith?....understanding our faith?... sharing
our faith? Of course it depends a lot on the child’s family, yet
it takes a whole church to bring the child to the love and knowledge of
God.
Now if you’re among the folks
who feel that we have a long way to go to form our young people in the
faith, may I ask you to consider doing something about helping us going
that long way? First, look at the talents God has given you and look at
how you could carve out a couple of hours in your week. If among your
gifts are the (a) love of God, (b) concern for children (c) the ability
to read and follow a teacher’s guide that has clear lesson plans
and (d) the willingness to to spend an hour a week with children in our
Religious Education Program, then you CAN do something to help our children
come to know the love and care of God.
Ok, so you’ve figured out
that in this week’s column I’m inviting people to be catechists
(religion teachers) in the year ahead, and you’re about to turn
to the next page in the bulletin (or pay more attention to the homily
--- though I hope you’re not reading this during Mass). But before
you move on, would you please go back and re-read that last paragraph?
Really. If you have (a), (b), (c), and (d), (well do you?), then what’s
stopping you from trying out this great way to grow in your own faith?
You see, our catechists tell us
that they get more out of the experience than they give. While we’re
happy to invite people of all ages, I want to especially reach out to
people in their twenties and thirties to come out to be part of this program.
(Parents this is the paragraph to circle and leave for your 20-something
or 30-something adult child who really needs this invitation when you
go home from church today!!) Sometimes people object that they haven’t
learned all they should about their own faith. Teaching a religion class
is an excellent and easy way to fix that. True, you’ll only be “one
chapter ahead” of the kids, but that’s enough for now. What
God will do to help you, will take your faith way into the future. To
volunteer, call our Religious Ed staff @333-9434.
