Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This weekend we come to the end of the month of October 2005. It’s been a busy month. It’s been a great month. This weekend both Fr. Dale and myself, along with our respective high school folks, are in Atlanta, Georgia for the 2005 National Catholic Youth Convention. We welcome to St. Maria Goretti Fr. Tom Widner, SJ and Fr. Ben Hawley, SJ, who are from the Brebeuf Jesuit Community. Fr. Widner and Fr. Hawley were both most kind to help us out this weekend. We thank both of them!

We have read a lot in our Gospels lately, both on Sunday and at daily Mass, about Jesus’ interaction with the Scribes and the Pharisees. At first glance, it seems the Scribes and the Pharisees had a good deal of animosity towards Jesus. The more we read, and the deeper we read, there was a lot going on with the Scribes and Pharisees. They were afraid. They were jealous. They were close-minded. And, maybe most of all, they had pre-judged our Lord based upon here-say. Instead of finding out the truth about Jesus, it was so much easier to believe what “everybody” else was saying. They bought into the rumors, and they missed God present in their lives. It was a sad situation. But all of these texts have also got me thinking about how many times and in how many ways, we don’t give others a chance because we do the same thing to them that the Scribes and Pharisees did to Jesus. We hear so much. Everybody’s got an opinion about everybody else. We pre-judge people by the way that they look, or by where they live, or by what kind of car that they drive. We file, and classify, and label, and put into nice, tidy boxes our brothers and sisters, before we’ve even had the chance to meet them. I wonder how many times we, like the Scribes and Pharisees, miss out on some really neat things that God has in store for us, all because it didn’t fit our image or idea of the way that things are “supposed” to be? This is serious stuff, folks. This is not good when it happens in a family, or in a neighborhood, or in a workplace, or a school. This is deadly when it happens in a Catholic Christian community. Now, I’m not writing this about any particular situation right now. So all those inquiring minds that just went into over-drive a few seconds ago, can stop right now trying to figure out which situation I’m talking about. I’m writing in generalities here. I just think that all of us can do better at giving each other the chance to be better. Maybe we even need to give someone that we know a second chance, or a third chance. You get the idea.

People change. Conversion is on-going. We are never done with God until He says that we’re done and He brings us home. Wouldn’t it be a shame to miss a great friend in this life, all because we judged them on what we heard falsely from someone else or based on erroneous information? How about if this week we all tried to give each other the benefit of the doubt? Even our worst enemies are seldom as evil as we imagine them to be in our heads. What if instead of immediately assuming the worst about something someone said or did, what if we tried our best to assume the best possible intention to their words or action? If we did that, our world might be a different place. If we did that, we might be different people.

This week is the Feast of All Saints, on Tuesday, November 1 st. Please check out the Holy Day Mass schedule listed in this bulletin. This is a Holy Day of Obligation. And then on Wednesday, we have the Feast of All Soul’s, when we pray for all of our dead, especially those who have died in the last year. Our Book of Remembrance is out once again for the entire month of November. Please write in this year’s book the names of any of your deceased relatives or friends that you would like us to pray for this month. Those listed in the Book of Remembrance will be prayed for all Masses in November.

And Hey, don’t forget to sign up for the “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” Dinner! This has become one of my favorite events in the last few years. It is a great way to get to know your fellow parishioners or to get to spend some time with ones that maybe you haven’t seen in awhile. It is a blast! The hardest thing about giving it a try (And if you give it a try, I know you’ll enjoy it and will be back next year) is getting over not being able to control who you are going to eat with. We need to get over it. Read my second and third paragraphs of this letter this week again, and then tell me why you would be afraid to eat dinner with a brother or sister? Come on. Sign up! It’ll be fun. We need more mystery and adventure in our lives.

Have a great weekend. Pray for all of us in Atlanta. I’ll see you next weekend. God bless!

In Christ,

Fr. Kevin

Years make us old. People make us wise.