Clergy Bulletin Articles

We have begun the season of Lent, but likely much of our attention is on the news concerning Russia’s unjust invasion of Ukraine. We pray for peace and for all those who have died and suffered in the war, especially the innocent. We are reminded how broken our world is and of fallen human nature. Also, we should recall there is a bigger enemy and a bigger war occurring that we must fight in this Lent. As St.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus challenges us to remove the wooden beam from our own eyes first so that we may see clearly, and only then are we able to even consider removing a splinter from our brother’s eye. Did you know your pastor is literally almost blind in one eye? I have a rapid growing cataract in my right eye.

Did you know the Catholic Church is engaged in a Synod on Synodality? Synodality is term meaning the process of fraternal collaboration and discernment. The current Synod is a two-year process of listening and dialogue which began late 2021 and will conclude in 2023. As such we are invited to reflect and answer questions which will be summarized and gathered by the bigger Church. I’d invite anyone to answer any of the questions below and reply back to me at frgreg@popolathe.org. Please be as clear and brief as possible.

Happy World Marriage Sunday and Valentine’s Day! I thought I’d share some wisdom on the importance of prayer for married couples. I always give this spiel as part of engaged couples’ marriage preparation. I believe shared prayer in a couple’s life is the most intimate thing they can do, and intimacy is so important for marriage! There is nothing more intimate than sharing what is deepest in one’s heart, and that is what we should be praying to God about.

Okay, this is new! You have a “guest columnist” this week – it’s Deacon Mike. Father Greg had the idea of having his deacons write a column once a month. Time will tell how long Father Greg will pursue this risky venture, but he did select an appropriate week to start – this Monday kicks off National Marriage Week. The National Marriage Week initiative was launched by laypeople in 2010 to pay respect to the beauty of marriage and to honor all spouses for their faithfulness and sacrifices.

Happy Catholic Schools Week! This week we celebrate the gift of Catholic education. There is a proverb, “A falling tree makes more noise than a growing forest.” In the midst of a world of lots of noisy falling trees—bad news, troubles, etc.—we can easily miss all the good going on right before us, a true growing forest. Catholic education is a growing forest as our young people soak in learning and formation and grow into faith-filled, mature young adults before our eyes under the tutelage and care of our most dedicated teachers and staff.

January 22 is the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children, the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. The Church encourages us especially these days to pray for life. I include a couple of prayers I found on the USCCB’s website you might like. Let’s pray for a deeper respect for life in every heart.

 

Peace,

 

Heavenly Father, thank you

for the precious gift of life.

In some recent homilies, especially Christmas and Epiphany, I used some space illustrations to lead to some theological points. My starting illustrations were the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope on Christmas Day, which by the way all has gone very well with that mission so far, and the fact that scientists say the universe has no center. I won’t go into any detail about those things here other than to say when you learn about them, it fills you with a sense of awe at the mysteries of our enormous universe.

 

The Archbishop’s Call to Share (ACTS) kicks off this weekend. This is an annual appeal to fund many important ministries of the Archdiocese that we could not do alone as a single parish. It is the equivalent of our annual parish stewardship which funds our parish ministries, except this appeal funds Archdiocese-wide ministries which benefit us and many others (see examples below). I know our 2022 ACTS goal is increased, but I don’t have the exact number at this time.

Merry Christmas, Happy Epiphany, Happy New Year and Thank You! Thank you for all the cards, gifts, goodies, and prayers you have given to me! We continue to celebrate our Christmas season, especially this Sunday with the Epiphany. We also enter a new year of 2022. Have you made a New Year’s resolution? I’ll save you the trouble of googling it—below is a list from a Nielsen survey from a few years ago of the top ten most common resolutions and what percentage of people make them. Of course, I have to add my own commentary to it. :)