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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Welcome to our celebration today of the Epiphany of our
Lord Jesus! As we continue to celebrate our Christmas season, may you keep the
joy and peace of the Incarnation in your heart and centered in your life!
With the beginning of the New Year comes the inevitable
re-evaluation of our goals. January is the perfect time for us to take a good,
hard, honest look at our lives, at what is working well for us and also at what
might not be working so well for us. We call this annual evaluation the setting
of our New Year’s resolutions. A lot of us do this every year. Sometimes we
are more serious about it than at other times. Many times our New Year’s
resolutions barely make it into February. And yet sometimes, when we really
know that we need to make a change, New Year’s resolutions can change lives.
Whether it be losing weight and getting into shape, or stopping the use of
tobacco products, some resolutions can vastly improve our lives, if we would
just stick with them. Last year, my New Year’s resolution was to start using
the change in my pocket more, when I go to pay for things. Last January, I
found myself with three coffee mugs full of change sitting on my dresser at the
rectory. I had a choice to make. I could add a fourth coffee mug on my dresser
top collection, which was already taking up too much room, or I could actually
start spending the accumulated change in my pocket to pay the exact amount
owed. My New Year’s resolution last year was to spend the coins! I needed a
fourth coffee mug full of change on top of my dresser like I needed another hole
in my head! I did a fairly good job. As we begin 2010, I have two and half
coffee mugs full of change on my dresser. I didn’t add a fourth mug. And I did
actually decrease the amount in the third cup, but I still have a ways to go.
Does anybody else have this problem? What are you supposed to do with all of
that change? I don’t want to turn into that farmer that walks into the car
dealership to buy his next vehicle with mugs and mugs of pennies! My dresser is
not that big.
One goal, one new resolution that I’d like to ask all of
us to make this coming year, is for each of us as Catholic Christians to commit
ourselves to solid, on-going adult religious education. All of us can learn
more about our Faith. What we don’t know and what we don’t realize, is killing
us as Church. The surveys done on adult Catholics indicate that we don’t know
near enough about our Faith and our Church’s teachings as we should. We need to
take advantage of our adult religious education opportunities. We need to read
more about our Faith, our Church, and the Christian life. We need to know more
about the Faith and life experiences of those who have gone before us in Faith,
and who have successfully lived out Jesus’ teachings. Far too often, we miss
out on the incredible beauty of our Catholic Faith, all because we don’t know or
don’t understand it. Our Faith is like an extraordinary tapestry, that is woven
together of all the different teachings. The more we know, the more we learn,
the more we can appreciate its beauty and awesomeness.
What can you do this year? What could you learn about
it? I am absolutely convinced that no one would ever leave the Catholic Church
ever if we really understood its beautiful integration of teachings. No other
church has anything like it. And yet most of us are trying to be Catholic
without a basic knowledge of that teaching. It won’t work. The best thing that
each one of us could do for ourselves, our families, and our Church, in 2010, is
to learn more about our Faith. It will enrich every aspect of our lives. How
about making it one of your New Year’s resolutions this year?
The Parish Council’s 2010 “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”
Dinner is coming up on January 23rd.
Once again, I’d like to highly encourage you to come and join us. It’s one of
my favorite evenings all year long, and every year I’ve met somebody that I
didn’t know before. The information on this year’s event is contained in this
week’s bulletin and the Parish Council will be at Masses next weekend, signing
folks up. Mark your calendars now and plan on attending. You won’t regret it!
School resumes tomorrow. I’m looking forward to seeing
the kids. It’s been too quiet around the office. Have a great week!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
It is human to err; it is devilish to remain willfully in error. |
