July
9, 2006
Missing
God
Position Available
We
are seeking to hire a part time administrative assistant to help in
the parish business office. Job description available at the parish
center office or online at:
www.saintbrigid.net/
assistant.html
Sommer
in the Summer
Each summer, I look for opportunities to get together with parish families
for conversation (and dessert). It works like this -- give me a call
(or e-mail me) with a possible date; invite friends and neighbors over
(around 12 is a good number); think of questions or topics you’d
like to discuss; make dessert.
This is a good way for me to hear what people are interested in or concerned
about and to get to meet them outside the church setting. You can reach
me via e-mail:
shepherd@saintbrigid.net
Welcome
Home
Many of our college students are home for the summer and we’re
happy to see them back at St. Brigid’s on the weekends. Congratulations
to all who successfully completed another semester and especially to
all who graduated Congratulations to all who are graduating from high
school too.
Census
Continues
Of the approximate 6,000 families we usually send mail to, we’ve
received completed Census booklets from over 4,000. So we’ve got
a ways to go.
Is your booklet in?
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past Columns:
July 2: Jesus Interrupted
June 25: One Here, One to
Come
June 18: A Father's Gift
June 11: Charity Begins
At Home
June 4: Turning Silver
May 28: Eight Years •
Eight Months
May 21: If Any
May14: Celebrating Mothers
May 6: Celebrating Priests
April30: Baked Fish
April 23: What we hear
April 16: Out of the Tomb
April 9: Jesus, Our Source
of Peace
April 2: NOW, Can you Hear
Me?
Mar 26: Can You Hear Me
Again?
Mar 19: Can You Hear Me
Now?
Mar 12: Now Take 4Steps
March 5: Take A Step
Feb 26:Coming Home
Feb19: Visiting Heros
Feb 12: Passing Pastor
Feb 4: Annual Appeal
Jan 22: Abandoned Nets
Jan 15: Everlasting Life
Jan 8: I'm not going to
jail..
Jan 1: Happy New Year
Columns
from 2005
Columns
from 2004
Columns from
2003
Columns from 2002
In
today’s gospel (Mark 6:1-6), the people in Jesus’ home town
reject him because they know his family -- and likely they knew him as
he grew up in their village. “Is he not the carpenter?”they
ask.
Let’s not be too harsh in
judging them for not recognizing God in Jesus. The beauty of the incarnation
is that God became human not in some “superman” form, but
as one like us. The next time you have a carpenter, plumber, electrician,
landscaper, etc.come to your home think for a moment: “Would I ever
think this person was God?”
Familiarity with Jesus and his
family blinded his townspeople from recognizing what he was really about
-- bringing God’s reign in their midst. We have the benefit of 2000
years of Christianity to help us really see and know Jesus, yet it’s
possible to have blind spots of our own. I suspect that each of us has
a “comfort zone” when it comes to our relationship with Jesus,
just as we have such a comfort zone with other relationships in our lives.
And when others grow beyond our expectations, we’re challenged to
grow too. The temptation is to not grow, but rather to withdraw. So too
with Jesus. Much of our relationship with Jesus is culturally conditioned
-- people often relate to Jesus as if he spoke their language, was their
race, was comfortable in their socio-economic place in society.
Certainly the risen Lord can indeed
speak our language, yet there is much about Jesus that we don’t
expect when we put our own cultural conditions on him. At times in prayer
(especially when we pray with the gospels) Jesus breaks through beyond
what we expected and challenges us to grow in new ways. The temptation
is to go backward to our comfort zone, but by doing that we’re joining
in with his neighbors in Nazareth and missing rich aspects of the presence
of God-made-man in our midst.
Why not spend some time in prayer asking Jesus to open our eyes, minds,
souls and hearts to come to know him as he really is?
