From Our Pastor

From Our Pastor

Dear Folks,

Happy St Patrick’s Day! Remember 2 years ago when it fell on a Friday in Lent? What to do? What a crisis of epic proportion? How did the Irish, and the wanna-be-Irish survive without corned-beef ? Is my Irishness more important than my Catholicness??? Wait….. Our Orange-Loving-Pastor is Irish? One eighth in the blood! One of my great grandmothers was Delia Daggett born in county Meath. So out of respect for St. Patrick, my ancestors, and for all the beloved Irish in our parish: no orange clothes for me today!!

But back to the Friday St. Patrick crisis of 2017: well, our Bishop has stepped in to let us off the hook, letting us choose another day that week to abstain from meat. Because the law of abstaining from meat is an ecclesiastical law, it can be lifted by the competent authority (the Bishop, and in some cases by me!) However, we do we fidelity and obedience to ecclesiastical law. Why? Well, these are the rules of our family. Every family has its rules, so that the family runs smoothly, and directed to the purpose for which it exists. Church law serves the same function, protecting our rights, and imposing obligations designed to help us get to heaven.

Which brings me to the Lenten discipline of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. All three are critical for our living the gospel. It is not sufficient to say I am just doing one or the other. Why? Because each part corresponds to a part of the Gospel call of conversion. We are called to renounce sin (fasting helps here to get our appetites under control), love God (prayer is rooted in this love and feeds it) and love our neighbor (our positive acts of kindness and charityflesh this out). If we say that we are loving God without rooting out sin, then we are sorely deceiving ourselves. If we embrace great penances, but fail to love our neighbor, then we are not following through on the Gospel. All three are necessary for living the Gospel, not just during Lent, but especially during this time when we focus on our spiritual lives. We face the reality of our lives and sin, and turn to God. This is the act of ongoing conversion that we should be undertaking every day of our lives.

Anyway, enjoy your green beer today (unless you gave it up for Lent)!

pax et bonum,

Fr. Mosimann

From Our Pastor

From Our Pastor

Dear Folks,

Having just celebrated Ash Wednesday, I was reminded that it is pretty much the only day of the year I think about ashes.

Did you know that soap can be made from ash? I didn’t. I only know that you buy it at WalMart.

But Wood Ash, with water and some oil can be combined to make soap. What seems dead, dry and exhausted of all energy, now gives one more time to cleanse and renew!

And did you know that ash can be used in compost to enrich the fertilizer? Wood having given its whole life to warm and illuminate, but even beyond the ash helps nourish and bring forth new life.

And did you know that ash can also help gardeners keep insects away when sprinkled around the perimeter? Worms, slugs and snails are deterred by the dry ash protecting the plant life growing in the garden.

And did you know that ash can be used to polish tarnished metals when combined with water? It can bring shine and beauty to that which is worn, tired, and dull.

Ash: in Soap it cleanses, in compost it nourishes, in gardens it protects against pests, in cupboards it restores shine, AND on Ash Wednesday it marks our repentance and desire to return to Christ. That repentance, by the grace of Christ pouring out His life on the wood of the cross: nourishes you, protects you, shines your soul, and cleanses you.

What appears to be useless is useful in so many ways. I had no idea. I guess folks who were more connected with making their own soap/compost/polish/insecticide in the 2000 years prior to the invention of WalMart might have better known this. No wonder folks have used ashes for millennia as a sign of repentance and renewal. And now my understanding of the riches of this liturgical gesture? Boom!

pax et bonum,

Fr. Mosimann