Here is todays column by Fr. Brian: Father all-powerful, your gifts of love are countless and your goodness infinite; as we come before you on Thanksgiving Day with gratitude for your kindness, open our hearts to have concern for every man, woman, and child, so that we may share your gifts in loving service. These words are from the opening prayer that is offered to our Creator at Mass on Thanksgiving Day. In my reflection upon this prayer two things stand out. The first is quite obvious, that is we offer our gratitude, our thanks to God for the love, goodness and kindness offered to us all. The second thought is somewhat less expected but in my mind equally as important. That is we are called to have concern for all people and to share the gifts that we have been given. (That was last week’s theme, “how are you using your gifts?”) To know our gifts, we are called to be in relationship with our God, the gift giver, and to share our gifts we are called to be in relationship with our sister and brother so that we may know their needs and in return they may know ours. Once again it all comes down to relationships and that is why it is so important that we spend time to reach out to know our neighbor, that person who may be sitting in front of, behind, or next to you right now in our church, that person who maybe you see every week but do not know their name. I pray that we all, including the priests and pastoral staff, continue to work on getting to know one another, continue to strive to be that family, that community of faith that I believe we all hope to be. Please introduce yourself to someone you do not know, stay a little after the celebration of the Mass to engage in conversation, and perhaps to even sit someplace different that in your regular spot. All of this will assist us in making our parishes the welcoming and evangelization parishes that God has called us to be. I hope you will be able to join us in our Thanksgiving Mass at Sacred Heart Church at 9:00am. If you know of someone who may need a ride to the Mass, I ask that you make yourself available to assist that person, and if you do need a ride, please ask someone you know who may be able to help. If anyone cannot find a ride who wishes to join us, please call the Collaborative Office and we will see if we can make arrangements for you. On behalf of Fr. Tamiru, Fr. Frank, the entire pastoral staff and myself, I would like to wish you and your family a very blessed Thanksgiving Day. Fr. Brian
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 21:26:13 +0000
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