April
8, 2007
Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Convent
Countdown
Still
waiting for a new tenant...tick...tick...tick...
We’ve lost $18,000 a month in rental income since the Police Department
moved out of the Convent building (next to our school) in February.
Please continue to spread the word about this building-for-rent and
let’s pray that one of the recently interested parties will make
an offer to rent it.
Our
Easter Fund
Thank you to everyone who has given in our Easter Fund Collection. As
you can see from the notice above, we’ve lost some significant
financial income since February, so your generosity at Easter, and through
the year, is
what will keep us “afloat”. Our fear is that if we can’t
find a tenant and make up the income by June, we are going to face cuts
in programs and staffing. So your gift at Easter and your weekly or
monthly contributions are the way we’ll be able to continue.
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.
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past Columns:
April 1: Holy Week
March 25: Climate Change
March 18: Take A Step
March 11: Cold Enough for
You?
March 4:Stocking the Shelves
Feb 25: Basket Case
Feb18: Ashes and Desert
Dust
Feb11: Get Ready, Get Set,
REST!
Feb.4: Lent Lurking
Jan.28:Catholic Schools
Week
Jan.21:Crying in Church
Jan.14: Love ahead
Jan.7:
So How Was Your Christmas?
Columns
from 2005
Columns
from 2004
Columns from
2003
Columns from 2002
It
was probably cold on the first Easter morning...maybe not as cold as this
Easter on Long Island...but at this time of the year in the Middle East,
when the sun goes down, the temperatures drop. And the sandal-clad women
who made their way to Jesus’ tomb must have felt the cold. And then
there was that cold moment when, arriving at the tomb, they saw that the
stone had been rolled away from the tomb entrance. It appeared to them
that Jesus’ tomb had been desecrated. (Think of how cold you’d
feel if you made a visit to Holy Rood Cemetery and saw the grave of a
loved one dug up!!)
In the midst of this coldest of
moments, Jesus appears and life is changed forever! So how is it for you?
Did Jesus appear to you this Easter? How is life going to be different
for you? Or will it be the “same old, same old?” Just as we
expect the coldness of this early spring to yield to warmer days, as our
wardrobe changes, as our moods are lifted, so too we expect that the days
that follow Easter will bring us to a warmer, brighter, closer relationship
with Jesus.
Some will leave church today thinking, “That was nice. I like Easter
at St. Brigid’s. It was crowded, but that’s to be expected.
But did I really encounter Jesus?” Well yes you did -- Jesus is
living in the Word proclaimed, the Eucharistic Bread and Wine, the community
of the Body of Christ. But it took some time --several encounters, in
fact -- for the apostles to come to realize how much the risen Jesus would
impact their lives. So too it is with us -- we need more than a day of
Easter, especially with all its distractions, to encounter Jesus more
deeply in our lives.
So let’s journey together
on these 50 days in the Easter Season. Come to mass each Sunday -- come
during the week too, if you can. God wants to do something wonderful with
you this year. And all we have to do is be there for God. Being together
as a church family for one hour each week might not seem much of a way
to give back to God our gratitude for Jesus’ life, but it’s
an important hour in which God will warm us, heal us, free us, strengthen
us, comfort us and love us. I’m ready for these days of Easter.
How about you?
