Pastor’s Corner – February 8, 2015
Bishop Sullivan is watching us with JOY! He wrote about our homeless endeavor:
“I recently read a wonderful article in the Shore News Today about the service project you had with your students who are preparing to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation next fall. Your work with Covenant House to raise student’s awareness about homelessness is commendable. I am certainly proud of the nineteen young people who slept outside for one night. It was also wonderful that you were able to combine this initiative with our own Matthew 25 Project.
Please, express my appreciation and admiration to all of those who participated. In these cold days of January, I hope that their experience gives them an appreciation for the many blessings they have in their own lives and also provided them more impetus to pray for those who are hungry and homeless, that their needs may be met through the generosity of caring people.
I look forward to being able to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation with such a committed group of young people.” Bishop Sullivan: Thank you for noticing!
As you know we are in the process of decorating “studs” for Habitat for Humanity. Soon we will join with the Diocesan program for collecting canned goods. All the canned goods we collect will be used to feed the hungry in our area. We have started anew with junior and senior youth groups and our Scripture Study on Exodus is one of the best I’ve seen. (You can still attend). There will be a Pro-Life Chastity Rally at Wildwood Catholic on April 25th and a Dance Fest at Bishop McHugh on May 16th.
Even though it’s cold and damp outside the Son of God is planting new and fertile seeds in our parish. In the coming Season of Lent our theme will be: Broken and Blessed. It will be a time of regeneration and healing for our Parish, please put aside the time now, it will be time well spent. Scripture this week reminds us that life without service is life that just fades away. Jesus tells us that he wants to heal us of every sickness and disease of the body, mind or spirit. Now is the time to reflect on your Lenten journey. Pope Francis said:” If you want to give us something for Lent, give up being negative”.
Our Mail Chimp emails will be going out twice a week. If you signed up and didn’t get last week’s, check your Spam file.
Did You Hear? I’m going on a cruise next January on the biggest Ocean Liner in the world: the Oasis. I hope that you will join me. We need to know your intentions now so that we can reserve the cabins. Please call the Parish Center for more information or to reserve your spot!
Pastor’s Corner – January 11, 2015
Merry Christmas!! This will certainly be the last time you hear this most blessed greeting for the next eleven months. Before we turn around twice it will be August and the commercialism of Christmas will begin anew. Now is it time to savor past blessings and accept the invitation to reflect on and bless others with the wonderful Gift that our loving God has so generously provided for our health of mind, body and spirit.
Although today is the last day of the Christmas Season I feel confident in saying that most Christmas decorations are packed away for the season. Hopefully our Christmas Spirit is not also packed up and forgotten because now is the time, like Jesus, to get serious about our Christianity.
Earlier this week I received an advertisement packet from a R-Garden Inc. touting a new wonder vitamin – Vitamin O. The pages of claims in the booklet were just short of miraculous on every level. This vitamin will cure everything from hangnails to heart problems, from insomnia to narcolepsy and everything kind of fatigue known to human kind. I’m sure that many thousands of people will initially “jump on the band wagon” and try this oxygen supplement only to find that it comes up radically short of the claims. People will then shake their heads, wonder why they got ‘sucked in’ and then impatiently wait for the next miracle drug or supplement to come along and start in all over again.
When I see these claims I think of the sign I saw outside a Church some months ago, it read: “The only vitamin a Christian needs is B-1.” What an incredibly simple and profound message. This message of course is at the heart of this weekend’s Readings. As we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord we are reminded by Jesus himself what the discipline is to B-1. That discipline is first of all to acknowledge that we are all sinners and in dire need of the healing forgiveness which Jesus provides for us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
The Baptism of John of which Jesus partook was the first known instance of a “Communal Reconciliation Service.” At this moment Jesus began to take upon himself the ‘sins of the world’ and from this experience he was able to feel our pain and share in our miseries. What an awesome God we have who not only ‘walks a mile in our sinful shoes’ but gives us the means to reject sin and claim our inheritance of sons and daughters of the Living God. This is the gift of “rejoicing” in the Lord.
It was not so many years ago that we experienced long lines at the confessionals on Saturday, now they are almost non-existent, did ‘sin’ disappear? I think not for its effects are more real and obvious today than ever before and the debt of sin is overburdening our spiritual resources. If ever you are going to make a “new year’s resolution” make it simple and profound – B-1 and begin with the discipline of Reconciliation, it may simply save your life. God Bless.
One of the greatest sins of our time is ABORTION. It not only kills a baby but also the whole family. It interferes with God’s great blessings and puts us into the deep darkness of sin. You are invited to travel to Washington for this year’s March for Life on January 22nd. The Knights of Columbus are sponsoring the buses. All you need to do is sign up and STAND UP FOR LIFE. Fr. Cosme will lead our group again this year, please, your prayers and presence make a difference.
