         
Pastor's Desk Archive             
2006 Pastor's Desk Arch.   
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Pastor's Desk Archive (December 2006)Our Parish Nurse (12/3/2006) Sacrificial Giving for Children and Teens (12/10/2006) An Open Letter to All Christmas Visitors (12/24/2006) Happy New Year! May It Be Your Best Ever! (12/31/2006) Our Parish Nurse (12/3/2006)The scriptures teach us that all things work together for the good of those who love God. From this we often note that God can bring good things out of bad. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen evidence of this throughout the course of my life. We all remember the terrible devastation brought about by the killer tornado of May 3, 1999. More than fifty of our parish families suffered the complete loss of their homes, and many more had significant damage to theirs. Catholic Charities provided a great deal of assistance during this time and asked me to designate a parishioner as a liaison between us and them. Caryl Prati was that person. She and her husband John had only recently come to the area and to St. Andrew’s from their home of many years near Toledo, Ohio. As a registered nurse for many years, Caryl possessed the training and skills to make contacts with all our affected families and to work with Catholic Charities in making an assessment of needs with which they could assist. At around this same time, Catholic Charities was promoting the concept of parish nursing. Both Caryl and I responded to this very positively and thus began a partnership with Charities by which we became just the second parish in the archdiocese to hire a Parish Nurse. Parish nurses practice the healing arts by applying their training and skills to a broad spectrum of infirmities which parishioners experience from time to time. While Caryl hasn’t been treating wounds or giving shots, she has interacted with countless people in a compassionate and life-giving way. After 7 years on the job, Caryl has decided to join her husband as a retiree. I have been most reluctant to let her go because I was quite sure it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find another person like her. This past week I met with Janice Flanagan Darley who only recently became an RN so she could become a parish nurse. She has been a practicing attorney, and holds a Masters in health administration. Her husband is an attorney and they are the parents of two children. She works at Mercy Health Center and beginning Monday will become our new Parish Nurse. May I encourage you to go out of your way to thank Caryl for her exemplary work as our Parish Nurse. She will continue to volunteer her time and talent as an active parishioner. Sacrificial Giving for Children and Teens (12/10/2006)I had a meeting this past week with staff members to talk about a special effort to promote sacrificial giving among our children and teens. One of our youth ministers told us that they had devoted a class to this practice a month or more ago and discovered more than a little resistance. It was also noted that we have been making children’s envelopes available to children for some time now that very few of them actually use. We discussed what all of this may mean and here are the highlights:
We decided that after the Holydays we will communicate to parents and youth our intention to ask them to make a commitment to give some of what belongs to them each month to the church. We will ask our catechists and youth ministers to provide timely reminders of the importance of sacrificial giving. Someone suggested that we consider inviting the younger children once each month to come to the altar and place their offerings in a basket. I suggested the possibility of giving each of our teens $50 and asking them to consider multiplying that sum as they make their offering to God over the course of the next year. All of us agreed that it is our job to teach and promote sacrificial giving as a good practice and that it is not our job to worry about the outcome. We are willing to leave that to God. An Open Letter to all Our Christmas Visitors (12/24/2006)Grace and Peace be with you from our Lord Jesus Christ and from His faithful followers at St. Andrew’s! We are delighted that you chose to join us for the celebration of our Savior’s Birth this year. Many of you have come because you are home for the holidays visiting with family members who belong to our parish community. For those of you who are members of churches in the cities and towns in which you make your homes, I believe I can speak for your pastors in saying that you will be missed this weekend….in the same way that we are missing our members who are visiting loved ones over Christmas. Some of you may not presently be members of a church family. We are especially glad for your presence. It is not uncommon to hear criticism directed at people who “only come to church at Christmas and Easter”. I am grateful anytime someone chooses to worship with us. I hope you will take no offense if I offer you a heartfelt Christmas “present”: The Savior whose birth we celebrate today loves you with a love beyond all telling. He accepts you just as you are and offers you a place among His special friends. He has laid down His life for you and He has the power and the willingness to give you your heart’s desire. I’m hoping you will prayerfully consider seeking a church home this year. Perhaps you’ve had some unfortunate experiences with churches in the past. I am truly sorry for that. Most everyone appreciates “another chance”. Perhaps you can give the church another opportunity to serve your deepest spiritual needs. It’s worth searching for, don’t you think? May every Blessing of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit remain with you always! Pray for us. Happy New Year! May It Be Your Best Ever! (12/31/2006)We’ve already celebrated our new Church Year and now the civil New Year is at hand. Can you believe that six full years have passed since Y2K? Lots of folks are going to be making resolutions of one form or another. Since they are so easily broken you’d think we wouldn’t even bother coming up with new ones. But hope springs eternal and we do have many needs. Here’s a list of things that we could choose to do during 2007 that might greatly benefit us:
If you’re sick and tired of doing the same things over and over again with the same regrettable results, maybe it’s time to consider a 12 Step recovery program. All of the ones listed below can be found in the phone book or on the Internet:
The “anon” programs are for friends and family members of people suffering from addictions. Rather than go crazy worrying about an addict, these programs show participants how to take care of themselves by “letting go and letting God”. |
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