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♦NEW MASS SCHEDULE♦ |
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♦NEW MASS SCHEDULE♦ FULL DETAILS HERE - Mass Changes and Reconciliation, COVID-19 Message from Bishop UPDATE May 30, 2020 Follow us on:
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The Duty of the Moment
My Dear Parish Family,
“But Dad, it's not my turn!” “I don’t care whose turn it is, I am asking you to do it.” Ever have an interaction like that in your house? “Not my turn” - drove my dad up a wall, and down the other side. Definitely NOT the correct answer. What’s the correct answer, “Yes, Dad.” We all knew the correct answer, but we often did not give it.
One of the worst things my Mom ever did was begin to pay us for doing chores. Great error, this. A quarter for this, fifty cents for that, a dollar for the really hard stuff - like mowing the grass. Not large sums, but attached payment to participation in the duties of family life. When Mom failed to pay us, or failed to keep up with the whole process (the accounting was intense!) all chores grounded to a halt. We did nothing! Whereas before, we helped when asked, now if not compensated we became ingrates. This phenomenon is not reserved to our family. It is well-known in token economy research. If the reward schedule is not maintained, it falls apart. While perhaps fitting for chronic psychotic inpatients in mental hospitals, in real life too many variables exist for a token economy to be maintained long term. It would have been more prudent for Mom to have promised us $5 a month if and when we completed the list of tasks she set aside for us. Think of this as the difference between salaried employees and piece workers.
Dedication to Christ
My dear Parish Family,
Last week we began a new Message Series on “Home Life.” We will be dwelling on how to improve our family life together. Most of us are spending more time at home so it is a valuable and worthy undertaking. We will also seek to shed light on and explore the relationships between our other homes: our parish home and our permanent home, with God in heaven. We kicked off the series by drawing some parallels between our worship together as a parish family and our family life at home. We dug into Mass as Mercy, Meditation and Meal, and the essentials of Family: Forgive, Focus and Feast. These pairs go together in order to foster a more joyful, peaceful and wholesome life at home.
The Three Ms or Fs
Dear Parish Family,
We have ALL been spending more time at home lately. Some of us may relish the chance; most of us are probably “over it” by now; either way, we WILL be spending more time at home over the next six to twelve months! When we crashed into our new reality in March of 2020, there may have been some inadequate planning, to put it nicely. By contrast, there has been a lot of planning for our work-life, and school-life. It is time to focus, once again, intentionally, on our home-life.
There are three Ms (or three Fs - if you prefer) in every solid, stable and Christian home-life. And these three mirror aspects of our communal worship, in other words our liturgy in church together (or remotely.) These 3 are: Mercy, Meditation, and Meal. Or: Forgive, Focus, Feast.
