December
3, 2006
Drowsy
Hearts
Online
Masses
We are now going to be able to stream masses and other events live over
the internet to homebound folks and to relatives who live in other lands.
If you’re interested in this, in this, click
here.
Convent
for rent
What would you do with an 18,000 square foot, three story, empty convent
building? For over a decade we’ve been renting it to Nassau County
for Police Department Offices. The police are scheduled to move out
in January, leaving us with an empty building and no one to rest it
to. The building goes for $250,000 a year in rent and it needs some
capital improvement for a new tenant. If we cannot find a new tenant,
I’m sure the neighbors won’t like a boarded up building
any more than we would and the parish loses this needed income. Please
pray for the right tenant!
Away
at 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:
November 26: Looking Ahead
November
19: Giving Thanks
November12: Putting Our
Two Cents Worth
November 5: Our Youth, Our
Hope
October 29: A Dark and Stormy
Night
October 22: Washington Trip
October 15: Marriage Help
October 8: Fall Fix Up
October 1: Cut Off Week
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
“Drowsy
hearts” -- not a phrase you hear bantered about often. But as we
begin Advent we hear Jesus tell is followers, “Don’t let your
hearts become drowsy...” So let’s take a moment for a heart
checkup as we enter this holy time.
First, let’s note the two
things that Jesus points to as being a possible cause of “drowsy
hearts”: (1) carousing and drunkenness and (2) anxieties of daily
life. Yes, office parties at Christmas time, indeed all sorts of parties,
get countless people in trouble each year because of the abuse of alcohol.
So let’s be alert to the “pitfalls of the punch” and
act responsibly. Even with all we know, people still drink and drive while
under the influence. (Doesn’t this sound like mortal sin to you?)
But the second source of the drowsy
heart is more interesting and more common: “the anxieties of daily
life.” Usually we think that anxieties make us less drowsy and more
high-strung. Yet Jesus’ insight is that our heart -- that is, our
ability to make loving choices -- can be lulled to sleep because we worry
about so many things. The coming of Christmas is so filled with the whir
of busy-ness that we can act impatiently with others, that we can get
caught up in compulsive buying, that we cease praying, that we skip church,
that our bodies and minds are so overloaded and exhausted that our hearts
slowly shut down.
While the commercial world would
have us get ready for chri$tma$, we who are disciples of Christ are to
get ready not for the coming of Christmas, but for the coming of Jesus!
Do we actually expect that Jesus (not the baby, but the risen Lord) is
going to come to us very soon? If we say, “Well, that’s a
nice idea, but the second coming is not going to happen this year,”
then our hearts have become drowsy and we’ve forgotten how to live
in expectation of Jesus’ arrival. If our families look forward to
the coming of Santa Claus MORE than they look forward to the coming of
Jesus, then our hearts are drowsy. Advent is a time that awakens us to
Jesus who wants to come into our lives anew.
Stay awake! Be ready! You do not know the hour when the Lord is coming
-- but he IS coming! Soon!
