Letter from the Pastor

In 1806, William Wordsworth looked at his own life and the lives of his contemporaries and wrote these lines of poetry: “The world is too much with us; late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.” If that was an accurate description of life in the early part of the nineteenth century, how much more does it describe our lives in the early part of the twenty-first century? Don’t you agree that it can truthfully be said of you and me, “the world is too much with us?” Day in and day out, most of us are […]

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 […]