If you’re looking to have a bummer of a day, go look up statistics regarding religious observance in the United States, specifically in the Catholic Church. You can see a steep decline pretty much across the board, and some of the demographics staring us in the face are alarming. Much has been made of it in the lead up to Beacons of Light and ensuring that we are prepared to minister to the Church we actually live in, and not simply carry on as though nothing has changed. But to my mind, I am not as surprised that we have so few people compared to fifty years ago as I am that we still have as many people coming to Church as we do. That might sound harsh, but sometimes I look at the state of the Church in America and I see a shaky foundation that is built on a great many things but rarely focused on Christ. Click on title for full column.

I am a sucker for many things. I love videos of soldiers coming home and surprising their kids; I’ll always stop for a lemonade stand that kids are running; and military honors at the end of funerals always get me. Another phenomenon that has begun to pull on my heartstrings in recent years is the star athlete/performer/musician finally getting the long sought-after feather in their cap. Seeing a ballplayer perform incredibly well for years on a terrible team, and then finally get to ride off into the sunset with a World Series ring is one of the things that makes me believe in goodness in the world. It speaks to the communitarian nature of teamwork; one man does not a team make, and they won’t go very far without everyone working together towards the same goal.  Click on title for full column.

Saturday, October 15 is the feast day of St. Teresa of Jesus (or often referred to as Teresa of Avila). Through a roundabout manner, Our Lady of Guadalupe led me to Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Carmelite Spirituality. Carmel has been answering many questions of my soul. It has helped me to see how to walk the narrow path with our Lord. I still have a lot to learn, and I am thankful to follow wherever our Blessed Mother leads me.  In thanksgiving for all that Carmel has done for me and in honor of St. Teresa of Jesus’ feast day, I’d like to share some books that I am currently reading or have found fruitful (the list is in no particular order). Most of these are Carmel related, but not all. Any primary source Carmelite text, I recommend ICS Publications.   Click on title for full column.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I am a rule follower, but I would say that my motives in following rules is usually less than completely honorable. A significant chunk of why I try to follow practices and procedures is because I hope it will protect me in the long term if someone takes issue with what I did; it’s always helpful to be able to point at the rulebook and say that I did what I was supposed to do. So I wonder what the mental process was for the lepers who were cleansed in the Gospel today when they realized that they had been healed on their way to show the priests. On the one hand, how could they not go back and give thanks to Jesus for healing them miraculously? But then again, He was the one who told them to go and show themselves to the priests,so shouldn’t they follow His orders?   Click on title for full column.

Thank you!   The priests of the S-4 Family of Parishes would like to say thank you to all of you, our parishioners Click on title for full column