October
1 ,2006
Cut
Off Week
Faithful
Service
Just
a quick note of thanks to all the Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion
who helped out at masses last weekend -- a delay in mailing at the post
office kept many ministers from receiving their schedule in time, yet
everyone “pinched hit” to be sure we covered all our masses.
Thank you very much..
Two
New Priests
I just received a letter from Bishop Murphy appointing our friend Father
Fitz Azul to St. Brigid’s for the next year as the replacement
for Father Jim Mannion. Father Fitz was with us during the summer of
2005 and will be moving in this coming week. In addition, Father Jim
Hannon, who most recently was serving at St. Anne’s in Brentwood,
has reached retirement age, and was looking for a parish to live in
and serve in.
We’re happy to welcome him to his new home among us.
Off
to College?
Are you or your child away at college? At St. Brigid’s we like
to stay in touch via occasional e-mails as we send photos and news from
“home”. College students wishing to be connected through
our “Letters from home” can sign up online here
or you can mail or
e-mail thecollege names and e-mail addresses to Father Ralph and he’ll
put them on the list.
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:
Sept 24:War Begins At Home
Sept 17: Who Do You Think
You Are?
Sept 10:God Be With You
Sept 3: Back to
School
August 27: Merry Christmas
August 20: Wine or No Wine
August 13: Mangia...
August 6: Mixed News
July 30: Impossibly Little
July 23: Come away!
July 16: Got a Mission?
July 9:Missing God
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
I’ll
bet you won’t lose any sleep over Eldad and Medad prophesying in
the camp -- we hear about them in today’s first reading (Book of
Numbers 11:25-29). But it obviously bothered Moses’ “right
hand man”, Joshua. It’s not a big deal to us because we’re
looking in at this story from a great distance and we aren’t emotionally
connected to the characters.
So why is it that we can get so
bent out of shape when people unexpectedly step into areas of our lives?
The objection of Joshua and the objection of John the apostle in the gospel
today could be re-worded: “Who the heck do they think they are?”
And we sometimes have that same reaction to people in our lives.
Both Moses and Jesus point out
that if people are doing God’s work, we ought not be upset, even
if the people are acting in ways we didn’t expect or invite. Alas,
jealousy and personal insecurity can cause us to forget the good others
do and lead us to complain about them instead.
So Jesus uses some pretty strong
images to shock his listeners into paying attention to his desire that
we live sinless lives, in community with one another. He isn’t demanding
that we literally hack off our hands and feet and pluck out our eyes --
rather he wants us to sit up and take notice of how destructive sin and
division is. There are some things we ought to “cut off” --
complaining about other people, saying unkind things, teasing others,
bullying behavior, making others look worse so we look better, etc.
Perhaps we could make the upcoming
week “Cutoff Week” where we cut off words (including e-mails)
that would offend others, degrade and demean others; or we could choose
to cut off sarcasm; or gossip; or nagging; or prejudicial speech -- public
discourse has gotten so negative and ugly lately (see, even I’m
complaining now!!) Time to stop. With Jesus’ help we can find the
positive to say. We can lift up those around us, even those we have struggles
with.
