February 1, 2009
Dear Friends,
Varia – Latin for various or assorted, as my comments will be today.
-Thank you to all who signed the postcards this past Sunday. And thank you to all who showed up on Monday morning to stamp them, since they had to be stamped individually. Many hands make light work and that was no truer than on Monday when there were so many hands, I believe they were finished in about a half hour. And the total number of postcards was 2318. You may have seen two articles in the Record this week that referred to the bill and the effort. Please keep the effort in your prayers as the nation continues to struggle with this issue. To those who felt they could not sign, for whatever reason, I thank you for your serious reflection.
-A couple of years ago, I wrote a series of articles on an effort the Archdiocese was making to help parishes share resources and programming, called New Energies. Because of circumstances, such as my preoccupation with the sale of our hospitals, and the change of a neighboring pastor, we didn’t really follow-up as we should have. We are now moving in that direction and one of our areas of partnership is the bereavement ministry. The last time we had such a ministry here was when Sr. Rose was with us. If anyone, under her leadership, attended the training session in Newark, and might be interested in re-connecting with this ministry, please contact me at the rectory. Also, if anyone new is interested, and would want to attend the training in Newark, you are also invited to contact me.
Another area of cooperation with our New Energy neighbors is in the faith development of our liturgical ministers. But before we can do that, I want to try to resurrect our own parish Liturgy Committee. You may recall that I was once set to do this before, but, again, I got way laid by my involvement with the sale of our Catholic hospitals. Now I would like to try again. If you have an interest in the liturgy and the church environment and would like to serve on the Liturgy Committee, whose main focus would be planning, please email me or drop me a note at the rectory.
And speaking of liturgy, I will try to resume my articles on the Mass after next week’s AAA Pledge Sunday.
-Speaking of which, next Sunday is Pledge Sunday for the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal. My article next week will focus on the annual appeal, but I just wanted to give you a heads up on it. I won’t be able to use my standard line about the TV’s being in place so those who attend the 6:30 PM Mass can catch the Super Bowl as well, since this weekend is Super Bowl Sunday, if anyone’s really interested (except a certain, avid, Steel City DGK and one of our youth lectors, as well). Oh well, it’s still a good reason to party. Have a good and safe time, everyone.
-Finally, I want to put a plug in for next Saturday’s workshop, given by Fr. Vinny Fortunato. He’s s great speaker, a deeply spiritual but practical man and his insights on prayer will be helpful, especially in this time of stress for so many. I invite all to come and listen, especially the men of the parish.
God Bless,
Fr. Ron
