From Our Pastor ~ June 12, 2016

From Our Pastor ~ June 12, 2016

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

We come to the end of another school year and  there is always a moment when you get to stop and just take a moment to think where we have  been and where we are going. I was  outside  working this week and just stepped inside the church to take a minute to greet the Lord, and sat down and just looked around. Such a beautiful,  warm place, fitting for God and fitting for us.

I came across a photo (these are rare, as we never felt inspired to take photos before, nor were photos permitted!) of the church—how it looked and how different it is now. I include it here, because for me it is a symbol of us.

I found myself overwhelmed with gratitude for all of you, the many people who make Saint Mary such an amazing place. Our vibrant parish life, commitment to worship and formation in holiness, our remarkable commitment to the wider community of Fredericksburg, our care for those in need, the hungry, the homeless. All the many Gifts you bring, gifts with which God has called you, gifts that you work to discover each day God gives us. You are the generous hearts required to keep our parish family going.

For a year of great work, it is time to give thanks to our leaders whose terms are coming to an end: our Parish Council under the leadership of Beth Merriman who is passing the role of leader to Julie Appleton; to Donna Hart and all our Stewardship Committee who continue to help our many ministries come together as one symphony and call forward the gifts that God has given our parish; to Regis Keddie and our Finance Committee who have every month kept  an eye on our temporal net worth and advised us well. And, of course, our Staff and Clergy who continue to support and be supported by our many volunteers who carry the Light of Christ forward everyday.

To you, our volunteers, a special thanks: those who work in most-often unknown ways to serve God and neighbor, particularly leaders of ministries whose work has impacted the lives of many people, known or unknown. Thanks. As the summer begins, I pray that you find a moment now and then to stop in and greet the Lord, and know the gratitude I feel. Look! says the Lord, I make all things new! You are the beauty, the brightness, the music, and the color that we have come to know in our parish home.

God bless you.

Fr. Don

sanctuary before

Meditation on June 5, 2016 readings

Meditation on June 5, 2016 readings

Reading 1 1 Kgs 17:17-24

Elijah went to Zarephath of Sidon to the house of a widow.
The son of the mistress of the house fell sick,
and his sickness grew more severe until he stopped breathing.
So she said to Elijah,
“Why have you done this to me, O man of God?
Have you come to me to call attention to my guilt
and to kill my son?”
Elijah said to her, “Give me your son.”
Taking him from her lap, he carried the son to the upper room
where he was staying, and put him on his bed.
Elijah called out to the LORD:
“O LORD, my God,
will you afflict even the widow with whom I am staying
by killing her son?”
Then he stretched himself out upon the child three times
and called out to the LORD:
“O LORD, my God,
let the life breath return to the body of this child.”
The LORD heard the prayer of Elijah;
the life breath returned to the child’s body and he revived.
Taking the child, Elijah brought him down into the house
from the upper room and gave him to his mother.
Elijah said to her, “See! Your son is alive.”
The woman replied to Elijah,
“Now indeed I know that you are a man of God.
The word of the LORD comes truly from your mouth.”

Responsorial Psalm Ps 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13

R. (2a) I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
I will extol you, O LORD, for you drew me clear
and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
O LORD, you brought me up from the nether world;
you preserved me from among those going down into the pit.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
Sing praise to the LORD, you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger lasts but a moment;
a lifetime, his good will.
At nightfall, weeping enters in,
but with the dawn, rejoicing.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me;
O LORD, be my helper.
You changed my mourning into dancing;
O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

Reading 2 Gal 1:11-14a, 15ac, 16a, 17, 19

I want you to know, brothers and sisters,
that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin.
For I did not receive it from a human being, nor was I taught it,
but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

For you heard of my former way of life in Judaism,
how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure
and tried to destroy it, and progressed in Judaism
beyond many of my contemporaries among my race.
But when God, who from my mother’s womb had set me apart
was pleased to reveal his Son to me,
so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles,
I went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus.

Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem
to talk with Cephas and remained with him for fifteen days.
But I did not see any other of the Apostles,
only James the brother of the Lord.

Alleluia Lk 7:16

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
A great prophet has risen in our midst
God has visited his people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Lk 7:11-17

Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain,
and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him.
As he drew near to the gate of the city,
a man who had died was being carried out,
the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.
A large crowd from the city was with her.
When the Lord saw her,
he was moved with pity for her and said to her,
“Do not weep.”
He stepped forward and touched the coffin;
at this the bearers halted,
and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!”
The dead man sat up and began to speak,
and Jesus gave him to his mother.
Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, crying out
“A great prophet has arisen in our midst, “
and “God has visited his people.”
This report about him spread through the whole of Judea
and in all the surrounding region.
Express Announcements ~ June 5, 2016

Express Announcements ~ June 5, 2016

* Join us! Our PARISH PICNIC at Holy Cross Academy is Sunday, NEXT weekend, June 12, 3-7pm in the afternoon. Please note: we are still in need of volunteers for the CCW to help serve meals from 3-6pm. Sign up for a one-hour shift. See p. 6.

* Save the date. Our next annual Called and Gifted Workshop will be held on August 26–27, 2016. Mark your calendars and invite your friends! Registration opens June 1.

* The “Believe Group” is a new Health Ministry discussion group for those facing a cancer diagnosis and for those sharing this experience with a loved one. Our first meeting will be Sunday, June 12 from 9:30-11:30am in the Courtyard Meeting Room, see page 11 for details.

* Join us next week for the Taizé Prayer Service on Monday, June 13 at 8:15pm. Now in our 9th year, we have met each month to pray for Christian unity in our community and in the world. All Christians are warmly invited; invite your friends! Please note that Taize for the month of July, will be moved to Monday, July 18 at 8:15pm.

* A Biblical Walk Through the Mass, summer bible study begins June 23 at 9:45am in the Courtyard Meeting Room and will continue for the following five Thursdays, Registration is required and there is a $ 10 fee to cover the cost of materials.

* Father Day Novena begins June 19. Cards and envelopes are available in the vestibule of the Church.

* Click here for Mass, Confession and Devotions Schedules

From Our Pastor ~ June 5, 2016

From Our Pastor ~ June 5, 2016

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

We’ve spent a lot of time the last couple of years working on the idea of gifts. The Called and Gifted Workshop, now a part of our parish experience, will be offered again this August 26-27. In my experience, the Workshop fulfills two principal tasks.

First, it challenges you to make an inventory of gifts, despite the fact you are probably convinced you don’t have any. Most people don’t think about it, or would never claim special gifts. You can’t be baptized without gifts. Baptism comes with gifts; you have them. The second task comes with work in small groups—you learn to experience self through others and their feedback. We are the worst judge of ourselves: we can underestimate or overestimate our gifts so easily. If you overestimate, you can come up short, frustrated. If you underestimate, you can go to waste.

Four Workshops later, I personally have realized that when God gives, he doesn’t give partially. There is no such thing as only getting part of a gift. As if I could think  that I only got a part of the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation. Maybe just a little bit of this, a little of that. God gives gifts according to his knowledge of us, according to what we are capable of doing: what we need in order to accomplish his will. God gives us the entire gift.

At our two Confirmation Masses last week, I was standing right there as the confirmandi came forward with their sponsors. I was looking into teir faces—8th graders don’t want you to think they are paying attention—and I saw a deep connection taking place. The Holy Spirit was filling them with what the Holy Spirit knew they needed to go forward from that day as active participants in faith and the Church. In today’s world, that is a lot.

I didn’t get to give a reflection at those Masses, but what I wanted to say was, “Don’t underestimate what just happened! Please— don’t underestimate the gift you just  received! You don’t have to make a lot of mistakes—you don’t have to doubt a lot of things, because God’s love is perfect—and he has just filled you with perfect love! No need to doubt it, that that gift is absolute. Even if it may seem just like a little, it is more than enough to go around.

Think of the Gospel from last week. Five loaves, two fish, 5000 men (double that many, probably, adding women and children). Jesus’ first instruction to his disciples: “Give them something to eat yourselves.” They responded with doubt: what do we have to give? All the time they had spent with Jesus, so many gifts. They underestimated the reality.

Jesus gives himself entirely in the Eucharist, not just a little piece of himself. ALL the Son of God, Jesus Christ, not just a memory or a thought or a finger of the Body, but completely himself. We can doubt as we walk out of church today whether or not we have the full presence of Jesus within us. Like I wanted to say to the newly confirmed: Don’t doubt that. Don’t underestimate the gift you have received today. It is the full power, beauty, truth, God himself. Spend some time reflecting what this gift must mean. If I have received the author of all creation, and all life, the perfect lover, how must my life be different now?

It took me nearly twenty years as a priest to finally realize: Once you recognize the gifts you have received, you are changed. You don’t look at life the same way anymore. You recognize what God is doing for you.

The Eucharist was the culmination of everything that Jesus did, everything that the Father does with creation, the whole story of difficulty, struggle, covenant, infidelity, suffering, pain, death—and then the Son of God empties himself to put himself in our place so that he is certain that what he communicates to us makes sense. He has heard it with his own human ears. He knows what we need, he knows what feeds us, he becomes the perfect expression of what sustains, what grows, what saves lives. Food and drink, what we need to not starve and live. And we are capable of appreciating what we receive, as he knew in his humanity of his own Father’s goodness to himself.

This is how we know that we can be his presence to the world: We are called, and have received the fullness of his gifts, and love.

God bless you.

Fr. Don