Pastor’s Weekly Letter

Do you think that superficial optimism and unbounded encouragement are counter- productive? Well- intentioned but misguided friends often increase the pain they originally came to erase. Much too often someone mouths much too easily: “Well, it’s God’s will” or “Time heals everything”. How is one to deal with the question, “Will everything turn our all right?” We Catholics ought to be the genuine realists in this word. Often we are not. We are victimized, it seems, by that shallow optimism which is portrayed in the media and which wants everything to be all right. So we simply act as if […]

In the letter of St. Paul to the Colossians, we’re told: “Let the word of Christ rich as it is, dwell in you. In wisdom made perfect, instruct and admonish one another. Sing gratefully to God from our hearts in psalms, hymns, and inspired songs. What ever you do, whether in speech or in action, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus.” The gift of speech is to be used to praise and worship God. It is to be used to create joy and laughter and song. It is meant to persuade us in those things that are […]

Have you ever wondered how an innocent person locked up is prison must feel? It doesn’t happen often; but human error being what it is, it does happen occasionally. A person is convicted of a crime which he or she did not commit and is sent to prison. There he or she sits, deprived of freedom for days, weeks, sometimes even years, knowing all the while that he or she is not guilty. He or she is an innocent person locked up in jail for a crime he or she did not commit. Probably that person’s toughest battle is the […]

I wonder how many remember the Art Linkletter television show, a regular feature of which was an interview with children. Occasionally, the host would ask one of the children to tell him the meaning of happiness. As you might suppose, that question generated some  interesting answers. One little girl said: “Happiness is finding a bug and getting to keep it”. If we were to take a poll of our parish, we would probably come up with about as many definitions of happiness as there are people. But there is at least one point on which we could all agree, and that is that virtually […]

Many years ago railroad crossings were marked with a sign that said, “Stop, Look and Listen”. The purpose of that sign was safety. It was intended to prevent motorists from driving into the path of a rapidly moving train. Today is the feast of the Epiphany and the first Sunday of 2016. So I would like to borrow that slogan of the railroad crossing not so much to emphasize safety as perspective. What better time to pause and take a look at our life, before we move ahead into 2016. Many of us are immersed in the things of earth […]