Come and spend some time before the Blessed Sacrament and pray for our country and the world. Adorers are needed Monday, November 4 after noon Mass through Election Day, Tuesday, November 5th. Sign up below:
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Dear Folks,
I shared this on Facebook , but since most parishioners are not on there, I will share it here too. I write this on the Feast Day of Saint John Paul 2. His Feast Day is celebrated October 22nd because that was the inauguration of his papacy, where he encouraged us, “Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. ”
Yes, the picture below is me in 1998, giving a high five to Saint John Paul 2! My family went to Rome around my first anniversary of ordination. I knew to stand by the barrier fence, so that when the pope would pass I might see him close up. This required blocking out all the late arriving crowd with the skills I learned playing basketball. So when the pope drove by in the popemobile, we were right there.
He was gesticulating with his left hand that he wanted folks to reach out and touch him, and so I gave him a (very gentle) high five! And then, I was struck by how frail and weak he looked, so I did what any priest would do: I blessed him! I immediately felt a little foolish, because who am I to bless a pope? But I am sure, in his humility, he would have welcomed the blessing from the very young priest!
So yeah, I high-fived and blessed a saint! And too those on Facebook who commented that I “haven ’t changed a bit,” you can have a small penance for you kind ‘exaggeration!’
Also: NEW ALTAR SERVER TRAINING Dates given in November and December. Check the ad here in the bulletin, and sign up by email to the server address included.
pax,
Father John Mosimann
Dear Folks,
This week at a ‘teaching Mass,’ one of the children asked about why statues are sometimes covered in purple. I was struck by the question being something she has ruminated on and attempted to explain it thus: It is done in the last approximately two weeks before Good Friday. This is because as we get closer and closer to our crosses, they can loom larger and larger. Our anxiety for proximate suffering can inhibit or block ability to see past the suffering to the new life that will come after. We cover the statues to remember that even though we can’t see the saints in heaven, they are still there interceding for us.
Another way to look at it is: How does anxiety build up when we have a dreaded test in school, or project/presentation at work, or when we are facing a crisis like divorce in our family? We can lose sight of the things that are most important to us. Trials and tests are not limited to Lent and Holy Week.
When we have such impending crosses looming over us, is a time when we MOST NEED Jesus and the sacraments! You are closest to Jesus when you are carrying any cross, and when you are uniting that to Him at the Holy Mass.
May we never despair of the darkness that comes with crosses and the confusion when we can’t see our prayers answered. Which inspires me to leave you with this quote from Fulton Sheen:
“You cannot always depend on prayers to be answered the way you want them answered but you can always depend on God. God, the loving Father often denies us those things which in the end would prove harmful to us. Every boy wants a revolver at age four, and no father yet has ever granted that request. Why should we think God is less wise? Someday we will thank God not only for what He gave us, but also for that which He refused.”
pax,
Fr. John Mosimann
