Pastor’s Weekly Letter: December 30, 2018

Pastor’s Weekly Letter: December 30, 2018

28 Dec 2018 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear friends,

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. This weekend the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. The Church often calls the family the “domestic church” for it is in the family that one is educated. In our families we learn to give and receive love. We all know examples of family experiences that are not ordered toward the good of husband, wife and children. However, I think we are always invited to reflect upon the ideal. The family unit of Mary, Joseph and Jesus invites us to grasp the potential of the family. So often we can dwell on what is not perfect, what has failed, how we have disappointed or hurt family instead of seeing the opportunity for growth. The Feast of the Holy Family is an invitation to see the possibilities for today. We celebrate Jesus, Mary and Joseph as living a perfect relationship ordered toward the good of the other. Failed relationships and family life are always the result of failing to love rightly. The model of Jesus, Mary and Joseph is meant to inspire us to seek ways to reconcile today what was imperfect yesterday. The process of conversion and growth is only successful if we focus on loving rightly in the present and not on the miscues of the past. As we begin a new year, we all have interior conversations we’ve held with self or with God that need to be expressed to family, friends or neighbors.

People often joke about “bucket list” items that they would like to accomplish before death. The Christian life invites us to see that the only true “bucket list” items, are the things we need to communicate in our relationships and the effort to love others rightly. As we pray this weekend, let us ask the Lord to inspire all of our families to seek the love of God to reconcile with each other and always be directed at the good of the other.

As the school is on break for a few weeks, life tends to quiet down a bit on our campus. This time always gives me the opportunity to reflect on the excellence of our church and school staff. Whether it is the patient and loving approach to parishioners visiting the office, the desire to communicate the truth of our faith through various media offerings or the outreach of the sacraments, the staff at our church truly seeks to serve our parish family. I think we can reasonably expect that the faculty and staff of a Catholic school would love our children. Our staff not only daily seeks to love our parish children, but they consistently make the effort to grow as teachers by implementing the best educational practices. I am in awe and truly thankful for the dedication, commitment and Christian love of the entire staff of our church and school. Whenever presented the opportunity, please express your sentiments as well. May the Lord grant us a peaceful and holy 2019! Happy New Year!

God bless….and Go Bears!

Fr. David