Conversations in 2008

Mardi Gras
Over the next few weeks you’ll be hearing about St. Brigid’s Mardi Gras celebration on Saturday, February 2nd. (Normally we wouldn’t have Mardi Gras that early in the year, but Ash Wednesday is February 6th!)
Mardi Gras at St. Brigid’s (held in the auditorium of our school) is a multi-generational event so grandparents and babies and everyone
in-between will enjoy an evening of music, food, games, and a chance to celebrate with all the different cultures of our parish community.
Many thanks to the committee who is planning this fun event and I’d like to encourage families, couples and single people to come out for an enjoyable evening at St. Brigid’s. Tickets are available at the Parish Center and Religious Education Office.
I hope you’ll attend!

e-mail Father Ralph:

Past Columns:
January 6: Matthew's Magi
December 30: Matthew's Magi
Christmas 2007 Homily
December 23:Joseph Awoke
December 16: Already but not Yet
December 9: Extreme Peace Makeover

Columns from 2007

Columns from 2006

Columns from 2005

Columns from 2004

Columns from 2003

Columns from 2002

Columns from 2001


		January 13, 2007 Conversations in 2008
Mardi Gras Over the next few weeks you’ll be hearing about St. Brigid’s Mardi Gras celebration on Saturday, February 2nd. (Normally we wouldn’t have Mardi Gras that early in the year, but Ash Wednesday is February 6th!) Mardi Gras at St. Brigid’s (held in the auditorium of our school) is a multi-generational event so grandparents and babies and everyone in-between will enjoy an evening of music, food, games, and a chance to celebrate with all the different cultures of our parish community. Many thanks to the committee who is planning this fun event and I’d like to encourage families, couples and single people to come out for an enjoyable evening at St. Brigid’s. Tickets are available at the Parish Center and Religious Education Office. I hope you’ll attend! e-mail Father Ralph: Past Columns: January 6: Matthew's Magi December 30: Matthew's Magi Christmas 2007 Homily December 23:Joseph Awoke December 16: Already but not Yet December 9: Extreme Peace Makeover Columns from 2007 Columns from 2006 Columns from 2005 Columns from 2004 Columns from 2003 Columns from 2002 Columns from 2001	For the most part people tell me they are happy with life at St. Brigid’s. I’m certainly happy here. Bishop Dunne’s recent visit yielded a report from him and a summary letter from Bishop Murphy that praise all that we are doing here for the spiritual well- being of so many people from so many lands. The parish grew by around 700 families last year, the collections are up $100,000 over last year so we can pay our bills (thanks everyone!). Yet I sense this is not a time to rest in the status quo, People do have dreams and hopes for the future of their children , their grandchildren and themselves and now is a time to listen. In November I went to a workshop in Baltimore which taught about community development based on having conversations with lots of people to hear what their concerns were and what interest they had in dealing with their concerns. I came back thinking, “this would be a good exercise for our parish too.” After all, I just finished my first term here as pastor and I’ve been wondering where our parish ought to be going in the next six years. What will our parish look like in 2013? How much of that will be because we chose to go in certain directions? How much of that will be due to circumstances beyond our control? (For example, I’m thinking that we might not have five resident priests and two visiting priests in six years -- of course I hope we do, but is that a realistic hope?) So I brought back this “conversational process” to our pastoral council and they’re about to go out into the community to have conversations with people about our life here in the community. I wanted to mention this in case you get a call from someone who’d like to have a conversation with you. I hope you’d give them a half hour of your time to share your experience and hopes. We’ll be doing this for about a month and afterwards we’ll collect what we’ve heard and report back to everyone. In this way, whatever plans we make for the future will take into account what the community’s concerns are.