FATHER'S TWO-CENTS WORTH

                                                                                                                                                           

Many thanks to all who made our First Communion Celebration/Mass the great success that it turned out to be!   The children did their job role well, the parents and family and friends were up to the task and it all went off well.  God blessed us with a beautiful day, and it allowed everyone to enjoy the day afterwards with outside activities.  God is good, and He wants to bless us, especially when we have First Communion!

 

As I write this column, it is pouring down rain, as was predicted.  Even though it is warm temperature-wise, the dampness gives a penetrating sensation that makes one want to put on a sweater to keep warm.  One has to wonder what God has in His plans for us, and all of the people that are having so much rain.  But God is good, and He knows what he wants.  Maybe, it is to make all of us realize that we need to pray for the good weather, and not merely presume or take for granted, that everything is going to go our way, sooner or later.  I feel for all those persons and families who have been flooded out in the past month or so, or have had other forms of devastation to their property and livelihood.  All of our developments shed more surface water off the ground into sewers, ditches, creeks, rivers that were never “God-designed” to carry such flows, and hence we have more flooding, or back-ups.  Please God, show us your way, and help us to accept it!

 

It seems that since we have an aluminum re-cycling depot in town, our Aluminum dumpster is being consistently emptied out by others, down to the last can.  It was a good money-maker for school.  Right now, we are not sure how we can keep the vultures out of it, other than having a determined drop-off time and then securing it in some fashion or other.  And then that demands someone to be responsible for that time and security.

 

We begin our 2008 Stewardship program this week.  We have modified the program from previous years, condensing it to three Sundays and asking for commitment Sunday for all three phases on the last Sunday.  As you well know, Stewardship is practicing the just use of God’s gifts to ourselves—the gifts of  time, prayer, talent, and treasure.  We all have these gifts.  The use of them varies due to work schedules, family obligations, material needs, our giftedness, and our earthly blessings as well as our financial blessings.  We need to recognize that all our gifts come from God, and that if we want to be God-like in order to get to heaven, we need to share our giftedness and care with others and with our church.  Our love of God and appreciation for all that He has done for us will be our guide.  We cannot out-do our God in generosity.  But we can also become so self serving that we squeeze God out of our use of time, talent and treasure and fail to be “His Image and Likeness” as we were created to be.  As a result, justice and peace escape us and the world, and goodness and peace become elusive.  We all need to be involved in this program of stewardship, in order that God’s blessings and graces can multiply through our good works and enervate others to become involved and work with us.  Each of us has been blessed—in various degrees!  Each of us must make a commitment according to our abilities and the blessings that God has given us.  Pray to know what God expects of you, so that He can replenish you, and then some!

   

 

 

 

April 20     9:00 - 10:15 AM - hcs

May 2      7:00 PM     Confirmation - Church & Parish Center