Dear Friends,
Rambling thoughts from a mind already on the slopes.
As I write this, with temperatures plunging to the single digits tonight, I prepare to leave for my annual pilgrimage to Vermont. When you read it, I expect to be on the slopes for what should be one of the better ski-conditioned winter breaks. I’m really looking forward to it.
For part of my column, I want to spend one last moment (for a while) on the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal. Since I could not preach at all the Masses this year, because of the Confirmation Retreat in Kearny, I want to restate the two points I tried to make. First, and foremost, the AAA is a worthy cause. It doesn’t grab your gut like the natural catastrophes that the media bring into our living rooms, with such enormous human tragedies. Rather, it is like the aches and pains that are present each and every day for people close to us, the disabled, the homeless and the hungry, the unemployed and the challenged, who everyday struggle to get through just one more day. The AAA helps them to survive and to believe that someday there will be a better day.
The second reason is very much a consequence of listening to Jesus’ words in last week’s Gospel. He said, “You are the light of the world. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” We often say that we should not do good just to be seen and recognized by others. And, as individuals, that’s often the truth. But Jesus says let others see your good deeds, not for our sake, but for the sake of the Father. The world may not know it, but I know it, that Mount Carmel is a place of goodness and generosity, to places all over the world, in Africa and India and the Turks Islands, and Tucson and Appalachia and D.C. And most of all of those times, it’s silently and without fanfare. However, the Appeal is a chance to let those good deeds shine before our brothers and sisters here in our Archdiocese, so that they may know that this is a caring community. So many give, to the tune of 744 households. But there are about 1,000 households who come to Mass regularly. To you I plead, join the other members of our parish family in letting the goodness of this community shine before the world so that GOD may be praised in His blessings to us, so that the gratefulness to God for all that we have received from His good hands and shared with others may be an inspiration for others to do the same. If you haven’t given before, or in a while, try a pledge of $100 to start – that’s only $9.09 a month for the 11 months of the campaign. It will go a long way to light up the darkness of someone else’s life.
Speaking of your goodness, I am so grateful for your kindness and generosity to our parish. This has been a tough winter so far, in temperatures and snow and ice. Yet because of your regular support of the parish, we are able to meet the increased costs without seeking extra support. Our snow removal costs this year so far are just about at the $35,000. mark. Because we need the parking spaces on the streets adjacent to the church, Hudson and Passaic, it’s our contractor who clears those, from the curb outward, the width of a car; we don’t get any extra attention from the town. Your regular support helps us do all the things we need to do to keep the place humming. I am convinced that your generous support comes from an awareness of God’s goodness to
us and is a response to that goodness and it’s called Stewardship. The planned and deliberate gift that so many give in support of the parish is the reason we don’t have to have second collections, or even special appeals for added expenses such as heat or air conditioning or snow removal. For those who continue to drop whatever they might have in their pocket at the time, please consider a regular and deliberate gift as a better way to support the work of the parish. As always, I put in a plea to use PARISHPAY as your method of giving to accomplish this. The consistent monthly contribution through PARISHPAY helps us plan for all sorts of contingencies, both material and pastoral.
Speaking of this “humming” community, a final word. I know that everything doesn’t always go the way people want or expect. I receive letters, both signed and anonymous, about certain things people don’t like, a particular homily, the style of a presider, decisions about 1st Communion dates, a personality in one of our pastoral programs, decisions about the grounds and trees and shrubbery I try to respond to all those that are signed, although I sometimes don’t quite get to them all. And sometimes I may not even know how to respond. But I do know a couple of very important things: all of us on the staff truly try to serve the Lord in serving you, being faithful to both what the Church asks of us and to what you ask of us. Sometimes it’s hard, simply because we are so big. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we just don’t quite get it right. But we try. And we love being here… because of your goodness.
Looking forward to seeing you next week.
God Bless,
Fr. Ron
PS. I realize that most of my “ramblings” were about financial support, please forgive me. After a break next week, because I will be skiing, I will begin a lengthy series of columns on the liturgy. In Advent of this year, the new edition of the Roman Missal will be introduced and I want to begin getting us ready for it.
