July
27, 2008
What
would you ask for?
Supporting
our New Tenants
I’m encouraging parishioners to attend Monday night’s (July
28th) Village Zoning Board Meeting at Westbury Middle School (on the
corder od School Street and Rockland Street) to support the proposed
use of our now-vacant convent building. We have found a suitable tenant
for the building -- the Westbrook Preparatory School -- a school for
24 children with Asperger Syndrome/
High Functioning Autism. We are not asking for a Zoning change, just
permission to use the building for this purpose. For the Board to vote
“yes” on this proposal, they need to know that the community
supports this use. I invite you to join us outside the Middle school
at 7pm for a few minutes of prayer and then we’ll attend the meeting
together to show support for this school.
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past
Columns:
July 20: Waiting
for the Wheat
July
13: What we Wear
uly
6: We Welcome Westbrook
June
29: Sommer in the Summer
June 22: Welcome
Father Jaime
June 15: Father
Gonzalo Lopez
June 8: What happened
on Sunday
June 1: Where
do you belong?
May
25: We are the Body of Christ
May 18: Trinity,
It's About Unity
May 11: We are
One in the Spirit
May 4: Who's in
Your Top Twelve?
April 27: Now
that he's gone...
April 20: Yay
Deacons!
April 13: Here
comes the Pope
April 6: Fresh Oil
March 30: What are you doing
for Easter?
March 23: Can Easter come
too early?
March 16: Which crowd is
yours?
March 9: We believe, yet...
March 2: Oil or Mud
February
24: What are you thirsting for?
February 17: Who are You
Wearing?
February 10: Just Say No
February
3: The January
20: Being Safer
January 13: Conversations
in 2008
January 6: Matthew's Magi
December 30:
What's Next?
Christmas
2007 Homily
Columns
from 2005
Columns
from 2004
Columns
from 2003
Columns from 2002
Imagine
that God came to you and said, “Ask me for anything and I will give
it to you.” What would you ask for?
[Pause here to consider your answer.]
Well this was the question that
God asked Solomon to answer.
And Solomon said....
[a] If you’re reading this before mass...you’ll just have
to wait til the first reading to find out
[b] If you’re reading this after mass (or online) ...you already
know...unless you came late in which case you can read his answer in the
bible at home: 1
Kings 3:5-12
[c] If you’re reading this during the homily -- stop doing that
and pay attention! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!)
Today’s gospel too has to
do with what we really value: Jesus uses the example of someone who finds
a treasure buried in a field -- so s/he goes off and sells everything
else so s/he can buy the field. Then that person has the whole treasure.
It’s worth selling off some things if you can get the whole treasure.
(Hmmm... I was wondering why someone would bury a treasure in a field
to begin with -- maybe they wanted “rich soil.” Sorry, couldn’t
resist that either.)
So the question for us is: what
ought we “sell off” in our lives so that we can “buy”
what’s really valuable to us? This question forces us to sit down
and consider what’s really valuable. Questions like:
• If you could had only one year to live, what would you want to
do in that time? or
• Who is it that you’d like to spend some time with that you’ve
been neglecting because your life is so busy? or
• What kind of involvement would you like to have at St. Brigid’s
and what’s stopping you from getting involved this time?
-- these kinds of questions can help us make some new priorities so we
can get involved in the things that really do matter to us.
PS. I’m away today as I’m upstate burying the ashes of my uncle who died several weeks ago. I’ll be back for Monday night’s meeting. Please pray for our family.