Before I Forget&

  • Know your Math?       Add Peace where there's none.
                                            Subtract violence when you see it.
                                            Multiply love when you can.
                                            Divide hate when you must.
from "I'd Rather Teach Peace"  by Colman McCarthy (Orbis Books)
  • What I do best is share my enthusiasm. 
-Bill Gates, Business Executive

 Enthusiasm  comes from the Greek.  Webster defines it as "inspired".  I've also read that the word enthusiasm means "full of God"!  I believe that our new Pastoral Center has created a lot of enthusiasm!  I enjoy seeing the  little tykes coming to pre-school programs.  They are so excited to be here.  I think that our new Chapel of Angels, which we use for weekday liturgies, is an enthusiastic space.  And, St. Joseph Hall is more than a place where we gather for coffee and donuts.. There is a new enthusiasm  in the parish...young families& our revered seniors... hospitality for the newcomer and stranger& this new building is certainly an "enthusiastic" place.

     Something very wonderful is happening at St. John's.  It's more than a huge building.  What I see and sense is an enthusiastic community of believers.  The response of the parish to "Families Moving Forward" was right from the gospel.  As we invite homeless families with  children to be our guests, this new building is a sacred space to helpGod's  homeless, God's  poor.  The People of God, the Church, are asked to practice HOSPITALITY& and, as the author of Hebrews states in chapter 13:  "Love your fellow Christians always.  Do not neglect to show hospitality, for by that means some have entertained angels without knowing it."
     This new building continues the work of Jesus Christ in 2002.  Jesus was a Preacher- a Teacher--a Healer.  And, that is our work as Christians:  to preach the good news (with words if necessary); to teach the good news to young and to old; and to be a place of healing where people become well or healthy again.    Please trust me when I tell you:  our new center is all of the above.  I am "blessed" and "graced" just to see and observe God  working in our midst&   and not just on Sundays& but twenty-four/seven. 
      When the parish decided to build this new space, we were dreaming big for God.  This new space is all about the honor and glory of God and for the good of God's people.  Our new Cenacle Chapel for adoration of the Risen Christ in the Eucharist gives us a glimpse of God's glory in Christ.  Parishioners keep watch with Christ seven days a week around the clock in adoration.  This will continue to be a blessing for the parish; people in quiet prayer with Christ, inviting all of us to know and love Christ and to dream dreams and see visions of a world in love with God.  In a world of noise and busy-ness, just to enjoy ourselves in quietness and peacefulness can make us feel "guilty."  We think that we have to be doing something all the time.  The new center allows us to stop, to be quiet, to find peace, to be in the presence of Christ.  As the MasterCard commercial states:  there are some things money can't buy.  Being in relationship with Christ and other believers, living the Gospel, is a gift money can't buy.
     If you go to Europe and see the magnificent cathedrals there, you are NOT seeing a testimony to the genius of the clergy.  You are seeing the fulfilled dreams of ordinary men and women.  You are seeing the vision that people had who lived in that city or village.  They wanted to build God a  house of worship.  So they sacrificed, planned, organized and sometimes, over many generations, built a church structure to the glory of God.  Maybe great  preachers fill their pulpits, but the landscape that is graced by steeples and towers reaching up to heaven are the  result of dreamers and visionaries in the pew.   
     Since I have been pastor of St. John's, I have seen parishioners who are grateful for God's blessings in their lives, their minds filled with the glory of God, and they are dreamers...dreaming of grand things that Christ can do right here in New Brighton, dreaming how we can be of service to the Gospel.  The Catholic Church has always had dreamers...it's part of our heritage.
     We need Jesus Christ. The world needs Jesus Christ.  The parish is all about Jesus Christ and the Reign of God.  As we ask for your financial help to make our mortgage payments, we are asking you to acknowledge that you belong to Christ.  Do you want to glorify God?  Only one thing will be accepted by God, according to God himself:  "For this reason it is through Him (Christ) that we say the 'Amen' to the glory of God" (2 Cor. 1:20).
     Jesus is the FINAL BLUEPRINT for our salvation as well as for God's glory.  Jesus is GOD'S YES.  We must risk all and everything for God through Christ.  Sure, the economy in our country isn't great.  We  can use this as an acceptable excuse not to give, or we can see it as a great opportunity to make a real sacrifice for God as disciples of Christ. 
     I may not like to beg for money, but I am not the least bit ashamed to beg for Christ, and the work of the Gospel.  In quiet prayer with Christ, what is your response?

Fr. Bill

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5