January
21, 2007
Crying
in Church
Convent
Countdown
We’re only a few weeks away from the time
Nassau County moves the Police Department out of our Convent Building
on St. Brigid’s Lane (next to our school). At that time we begin
to lose over $18,000 a month in income that we need to run our various
programs (school, outreach, religious education, various ministries
to elderly, homebound, etc.)
The good news: since people have been spreading the word about our desire
to rent the building, we have shown the building to various interested
parties. At least two to four possible tenants come to visit each week.
The bad news: no official offers so far. And the clock is ticking.
So thanks for praying for a quick resolution of this challenge. And
keep spreading the word. (In case people ask: it’s 18,000 square
feet and the annual rent is $250,000.)
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.
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:
Jan.14: Love ahead
Jan.7:
So How Was Your Christmas?
Columns
from 2005
Columns
from 2004
Columns from
2003
Columns from 2002
Every
once in a while someone confides in me, “For some unknown reason,
I find myself crying when I’m in church.” Once I ascertain
that this isn’t due to a poor homily or a sour note or two, I listen
to what’s happening in the person when the tears flow.
This Sunday we hear in the book
of Nehemiah that there was a moment in the prayer life of the people of
Israel where men, women and children were brought to tears in prayer.
It was the time when they had come back from being exiled and they found
a copy of the scriptures that they thought had long been lost. As Ezra
the scribe reads from the scriptures, the people start to weep.
It’s not a weeping of sadness.
It’s not only a weeping of joy, but one of relief, of completeness
and wholeness. The people cry because “everything is all right again.”
If you’re one of the people
who finds himself/herself shedding tears when you come to church it might
be because you are experiencing a kind of healing that leads to a completeness
and wholeness. Sometimes when we’re in the presence of God we do
not pray with words but with a wordless response to the Holy. It could
be laughter, it could be tears, we could experience prayer in our breathing,
in our listening, in our singing, in our looking.
There is so much going on the Eucharistic
celebration that can move us in these non-verbal ways. There is memory
-- certainly the telling of the stories of scripture help us to remember
-- but there are also the collective memories of baptisms, weddings, funerals
and the countless other times we’ve been in church. All these come
flooding in when we step into church and are open to prayer. There are
sounds -- how often does a certain hymn or the sound of bells trigger
a connection to someone or something beyond ourselves? There are holy
movements -- we touch our forehead, our heart, our shoulders and later
our lips as we make the sign of the cross at the start and end of mass
and at the gospel. We stand and kneel and bow and walk in holy procession.
Indeed our whole bodies join in prayer. And sometimes we cry. That is
beautiful prayer too.
