God has Great Plans for Us

Friends

Peace be with you. 

    This is the first bulletin column I’m writing after Christmas. I want to thank everyone who made our Christmas Masses so memorable, especially those who decorated the church, who sang in one of our choirs, or was an usher, altar server, lector or extraordinary minister of Holy Communion. Thank you for taking the time to serve your parish. I know there was some frustration at the 4:00 Mass because of a hiccough in communion distribution getting to the choir and fireplace room. That’s my fault and we’ll work on it in the future to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I especially want to thank the anonymous donors who gave the gifts for the children. And I want to thank everyone who gave me a Christmas gift this year. I’m a little behind both in opening those cards sent to me and mailing my Christmas cards out to you. I try to respond to everyone who sends me a card with a card of my own and to get it done before we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, the end of the Christmas season. However, if I get desperate, I can always fall back on the fact that Pope Benedict felt the end of the Christmas season was the feast of the Presentation of the Lord on February 2. 

    I’m kind of hesitant to write this next paragraph because I don’t want it to seem like I’m bragging or prophesying. I don’t want to seem like the guy standing by the side of the highway waiting for a car crash to happen so he can say he “called it’. But, I really feel like God has been encouraging me to write this for about the last month so here goes. In my prayers recently, I’ve been asking God what he wants from St. Patrick’s. I think I’ve been a little nervous because we are starting a process of pastoral planning that will almost certainly involve closing parishes and I want to make sure that our first priority is to follow what God wants from us. Faith over fear, right? I keep hearing the response that God has great plans for us. I ask for more specifics but just keep hearing that I need to be patient and wait and see. I also ask if by “great” God means something we’d consider positive or negative. God asked me if the flood was a positive or a negative thing for St. Patrick’s. On the one hand, we lost baptismal records, our church was shut down for weeks and required a major rebuild, our neighborhood suffered, and a bunch of other stuff happened that was bad. On the other hand, the clean-up process brought together this parish in what I’m told was a remarkable way. People invested time, talent, and treasure to bring it back. Parishioners were connected like never before. Many people felt like St. Patrick’s was on the road to closure before the flood but it emerged stronger than ever afterwards. Now, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t get the sense God was saying we’re going to have another flood. It felt more like God was saying that, regardless of what happens, He is with us and we’ll get through it stronger than ever before. When I asked if there’s something we can do to prepare, he said there were three things; pray, fast, and give alms. Pray the rosary every day and make a daily holy hour. Fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, especially from technology. Give alms to the poor, especially through Metro Catholic Outreach, St. Vincent de Paul, and other Catholic Charities. If we do this, it will help us live like the Christians we are meant to be in joy and no storm will shake our faith in Christ.