Tuesday, July 30, 2019

A Word from Your Pastor July 28



We are entrusted to one another.  Paul writes to Timothy: “First of all, then, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone.” (1 Timothy 2:1)   If all of us pray for everyone in the parish, then we are certain that we always have intercessors praying for us.

This happens in many ways.  Each Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation, there is a Mass pro populo, that is, for the People of the Parish.  The Pastor is obliged to offer or see that there is offered a Mass intention for the benefit of the members of the parish.

The Prayer of the Faithful, also called the General Intercessions or Petitions are about all the needs of the parish, the Church and the world.  We bring to that moment of the Mass all that has been entrusted to us.

The power of prayer for the living and the dead is deep in the Church’s awareness of her duty to God on behalf of the world.

I want to suggest that your involvement in the current project of creating a new Parish Pictorial Directory is an important way in which you can personally respond to this shared responsibility.  Whenever I look through our past directories, I am reminded to pray for all of you.  When I go on a pilgrimage, I often take a copy of the directory with me.  The number of those who have died since our last directory is striking.  I look at their pictures and continue to remember them in my prayers.

Some are hesitant to have their picture in the directory.  I would suggest that if you have such a hesitation, you should push past it.  Get your picture taken with your brothers and sisters.  Don’t let your vanity get in the way of your being remembered in the prayers of your fellow parishioners.  Do you look older and more care worn?  So what?! Let it be an invitation to all who see that to pray for you more.  Whenever I get my hair cut, I notice that there are more gray hairs than I remember.  It gives me the chance to acknowledge that I can give the name of the person who gave me each gray hair!

The goal of the committee is that all of us participate.  The good new is that July and August settings are already full.  Please don’t miss your chance to be in the directory this round.  I promise you that I will take one with me when I am called to a new parish and will keep you in my prayers.

Thank you to all the members of the Directory Committee.  I am grateful to you for your dedication.  Thanks too to all who have had their pictures take and to those who have scheduled an appointment.  To all the rest, please get on board and know that you will be remembered in prayer.


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