Thursday, September 26, 2019

Foster - Transform - Empower


You may have noticed recently some staff members and parishioners wearing white Holy Family T-shirts with our new parish logo and wondered what the words on the back of the shirt mean.  The words imprinted there are: Foster – Transform – Empower.  It comes from our Holy Family Parish Vision Statement developed by our pastoral staff and endorsed by our Parish Pastoral Council.  It can be found at the bottom of the Welcome Message page on the I’m New drop-down tab of our parish website.  Here it is and what it means:


Parish Vision Statement


Holy Family Parish aspires to be a community guided by the Holy Spirit that will:


·         Foster fullness of life in a personal relationship with Jesus.
·         Transform members into intentional disciples.
·         Empower them to make other disciples who love God and love neighbor.


As you can see these are action words, which connote movement.  First, it depends on our docility to the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, guidance and motivation to deepen our relationship with Jesus through regular participation in the Sacraments and personal prayer.  This forms the foundation of a more meaningful, purposeful and fuller life that reflects the joy and peace of Christ.  Second, with a dynamic personal relationship with Jesus, the Holy Spirit can work wonders transforming us into the image of Jesus, whereby we intentionally think with His mind, feel with His heart and love with His actions.  Third, with the grace of the Holy Spirit alive within us, we are motivated and empowered to share what difference life in Christ makes in our lives and seek to convince others to become intentional disciples of Jesus, too. 


So, now you know.  You may want to keep this for reference since I understand it is a lot to take in and digest.  And it will take a lifetime of continued perseverance.  But, if you own this vision for yourself and seek to live by it, look out.  Your life will never be the same!


                                                                                                God bless you!         
                                                                                                    Fr. Bob
                            
                                                                                                   

Thursday, September 19, 2019

We can not serve two masters...


Jesus reminds us over and over again what our priorities must be.  First and foremost we are called to serve one Master, and that is God.   There are so many distractions that take us away from our true purpose.  Once in a while we need to put down our iPad, our iPhone, and the remote.  We don’t need to get rid of them, but we must realize that all of the things the “world” values are distractions from our true purpose, and that is to serve God.  We serve God by loving Him and our neighbor, and by helping those in need.  

Jesus tells us in this week’s Gospel that you can’t serve two masters.  We “will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.   You cannot serve both God and Mammon”.

So what exactly is Mammon?  I think of money when I hear the word Mammon, and it is money, but it can be many other things too!   Originally the Hebrew term meant money or something of great value (treasure).  Over time the term evolved and became known as something that was held either with a banker or someone you completely trusted, knowing that when you needed it, it would be available for you.  Mammon was now becoming an object of trust.  Next, the word began to be written with a capital letter signifying its importance, and people began to put all their hope and trust in this “Mammon”, and it became their god.

We live in a society that LOVES Mammon.  We are so fortunate in this country to live, for the most part, extremely comfortable lives, and I don’t believe that Jesus is saying wealth is a bad thing.   But he is saying we should be wise in how we acquire it, spend it, and how we should use it to build up the Kingdom of God, and not ourselves.  It’s when the purpose of “Mammon” becomes self-gratifying, that we can become enslaved to it, and our motivation and disposition can quickly turn from God to self.

The Lord knows our limitations, and our potential.  There is no “God quota” for prayer or good works.  He does not have unrealistic expectations.  He knows what we can and cannot do depending on our state in life.   But He does expect us to do something! 

So, what is your “Mammon”?  Where do you place your hope and trust?  What obstructions are keeping you from serving God?  What is getting in the way of your special purpose that God has planned for you?      

Reflection by Cheryl Provost



Friday, September 13, 2019

The Forgiving Father


Upon reflection of the readings this Sunday, the idea of mercy keeps presenting itself.  We see the mercy of God when Moses pleads with the Lord to be merciful and not have His “wrath blaze up” against the Israelites who have been behaving badly.  Mercifully the Lord listens to Moses and spares them his wrath.  Of course we are all familiar with this week’s gospel story about the prodigal son who takes his father’s money and squanders it on prostitutes and high living.  He then returns to his father’s house remorseful and broken and is greeted warmly and doted on as having returned!  Not only was the father in this parable merciful but also overjoyed upon his son’s return regardless of what he had done.  Saint Paul also mentions God’s mercy towards him for having appointed him to his ministry despite his past of being a persecutor.  God had mercy towards Paul’s “ignorance”.  Mercy, mercy, mercy!  What a powerful and wonderful gift from God.

As I was on vacation this summer I was perusing my social media.  I happened upon a blog post from Bishop Barron.  I was so struck by his message post that I had to re-read it a couple of times.  I even went so far as to get up from my comfortable recline and seek out other members of my family to show them this little treasure I found about the far reaching mercy of God and his everlasting love for us.  Because the post was so beautifully stated, I dare not paraphrase it, lest it loses something so bear with me as I restate most of it here.  Bishop Barron says “God sent, not simply, a representative, a plenipotentiary, but his own Self, his own heart. And this divine Son, incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth, entered into the darkness and the tempest of human disorder.  He went to the poor, the hungry, the self-righteous, those drunk on power and those with no power-to everyone languishing in the iciness of the far country-and he called them home.”  He further goes on to say, “Now what is death but the furthest outpost of the far country and the coldest place in the Artic landscape of sin? And therefore the assault on death was the ultimate mission of the Son of God.  There could be no place untouched by the divine mercy, no refuge from the press of God’s relentless love.  And so God died that we might never be alone and hopeless even in this most desolate of places.”  How awesome that sentiment is to imagine.  Thank you Bishop for putting into beautiful words God’s mercy and love for us.  The bishop further goes on to point out that through Christ’s suffering on the cross, “God becomes our friend, our brother, our fellow-sufferer, even in that most terrible moment.”  Such a comfort to hear that God is our friend even in our darkest times, when we are despairing, sick, in pain, hurting or grieving, God knows our condition personally in that moment. Bishop Barron finishes his post by saying “Because God has established his power even at the furthest outpost of the far country, there is literally nowhere to hide from Him.  Because the Son has gone to the limits of godforsakeness, we run from the Father only to find ourselves, at the end of our running, in the arms of the Son.  As a parent would go anywhere – into prison, to a foreign land, into the gravest danger – in order to rescue his child, so God the parent of the human race, went into the darkest reaches of body and soul in order to save us.  And therefore this is the meaning of the cross; God is heart-broken love.”  

After reflecting on the readings this week and Bishop Barron’s eloquent post, I’m thinking, two things.  The first is that we are the Israelites, we are the prodigal son, we are St. Paul, we are the lost coin, and the lost sheep.  We are sinners, we are lost, we are “ignorant” and yet there is nowhere to run from God’s mercy and love.  As any good parent would go to the ends of the earth for their child to bring them home, to keep them safe, and to shower them with love, so God is ever ready to do this for us and is doing this for us. God yearns for us to be close to Him.  The other thought is that like a child who has made mistakes, sinned or has done wrong but is seeking forgiveness, guidance, shelter or mercy, God again is always there. As the prodigal son’s father was there for him so God is there for us.  When we are ready to seek God out, receive His love and mercy and let Him in, His joy in that moment is immeasurable.   

Reflection by: Mary Juliano Hayes



Jesus' Temptation

In this week’s Gospel, we see Jesus, soon after being baptized by John the Baptist, being led into the desert by the Holy Spirit to fast, p...