The deadlines for the bulletin have all been moved up this season so I write these words on the day before Christmas Eve, with a sense of anticipation and light. The big tree in the church, as of now, has yet to be decorated; when it’s lit, especially in the dark church, it’s a magnificent sight. Every year a member of our parish donates this tree to us, so we are grateful.
We are now in a new year, we celebrate this weekend the Epiphany of the Lord which tells the story of the arrival of the magi from the east. They come to pay homage to the newborn Christ child, and already within the story there is the shadow of a threat, as Herod is suspicious of their asking about a newborn king, and responds with the massacre of all male children under the age of two. The Christ child from His birth will walk in the shadow of threat and death as he announces the good news of God’s kingdom of justice,
peace, mercy, and reconciliation, and He will go to the cross and die for that kingdom. In so many ways, the message of the Christ has always been and still is under threat, anytime we do not see and respond to the radical message of the gospel in our times.
A very fine book recommendation: “A Book of Uncommon Prayer:100 Celebrations of the Miracle and Muddle of the Ordinary” by Brian Doyle. The description on the back cover begins this way: “Prayers for cashiers and good shoes; for shorter sermons and better senators; prayers for the bruised, foolish, glorious, stumbling, brilliant Church; for chaplains and mathematicians; for idiot authors and muddy dogs..” The preface is titled, “Prayer for the Idiot Author That He Doesn’t Totally Punt in the Pages That Follow.” What I love about this book is that the 100 prayers are all about the everyday and ordinary, that they are not necessarily “proper” or pious, but are rooted in the everyday stuff and happenings of life. And isn’t that where God meets us?
Blessings on your week!
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – November 17, 2019
This upcoming week, Fr. Jim and I will be in St. Petersburg, Florida for a meeting of the guardians and pastors of Holy Name Province. The focus of the meeting will be on what our province calls “Fraternal Ecology” (see the statement on this below). As you may know,...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – November 10, 2019
This weekend we have our annual Fair Trade Market in Clare Fellowship Hall. This is always an amazing time to look around and see beautiful handiworks from around the world, to move away from the massproduced quality of so many things in our culture, and to appreciate...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – November 3, 2019
Last Friday our staff had its annual Staff Service day. Our office was closed; we began at 9:00am with Mass and from there we acted upon the words “go in peace” and went out into the wider community. Afterwards we met back at the church and talked about what we saw...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – October 27, 2019
On Monday evening, our parish is hosting an information meeting about a proposed new Cristo Rey school which is being planned for the Triangle Area. See page 9. Cristo Rey is a school model meant to serve underprivileged high school students and our bishop...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – October 20, 2019
In the past couple of weeks I’ve received two letters from Catholic Parish Outreach, both of them thank you letters: one of them was a thank-you note for the 9,806 pounds of groceries that St. Francis contributed to the “Feed a Family” food drive; the other...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – October 13, 2019
We look back at the Feast of St. Francis, celebrated every year on October 4 and every year we tell again the story of Francis and the way he has, over eight centuries, captured the imagination of people. On Thursday evening October 3 we celebrated the Transitus...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – October 6, 2019
Last weekend we had a gathering of our parish council and our parish staff for two full days of taking a close look at our Franciscan identity, our mission statement, the signs of the current times, and from all of that, a beginning to look at where God might...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – September 29, 2019
This coming Friday, October 4, we celebrate the feast of our patron saint Francis of Assisi. A group of pilgrims from the parish returned last Friday from Italy, and we had four days in Assisi. Assisi is built on the side of a mountain, as you approach it...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – September 22, 2019
I want to thank once again, Tim Throndson who spoke two weeks ago about our parish finances. And here, I’d like to re-state what I wrote in our annual report which was distributed after all Masses a couple of weeks ago: In our 2018-2019 annual report, you will find...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – September 15, 2019
Our bishop, Luis Rafael Zarama has been promoting a plan to develop what is called a Cristo Rey school somewhere within the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. Cristo Rey is a model that reaches out to students who fall below a certain income level. This weekend there...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – November 17, 2019
This upcoming week, Fr. Jim and I will be in St. Petersburg, Florida for a meeting of the guardians and pastors of Holy Name Province. The focus of the meeting will be on what our province calls “Fraternal Ecology” (see the statement on this below). As you may know,...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – November 10, 2019
This weekend we have our annual Fair Trade Market in Clare Fellowship Hall. This is always an amazing time to look around and see beautiful handiworks from around the world, to move away from the massproduced quality of so many things in our culture, and to appreciate...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – November 3, 2019
Last Friday our staff had its annual Staff Service day. Our office was closed; we began at 9:00am with Mass and from there we acted upon the words “go in peace” and went out into the wider community. Afterwards we met back at the church and talked about what we saw...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – October 27, 2019
On Monday evening, our parish is hosting an information meeting about a proposed new Cristo Rey school which is being planned for the Triangle Area. See page 9. Cristo Rey is a school model meant to serve underprivileged high school students and our bishop...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – October 20, 2019
In the past couple of weeks I’ve received two letters from Catholic Parish Outreach, both of them thank you letters: one of them was a thank-you note for the 9,806 pounds of groceries that St. Francis contributed to the “Feed a Family” food drive; the other...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – October 13, 2019
We look back at the Feast of St. Francis, celebrated every year on October 4 and every year we tell again the story of Francis and the way he has, over eight centuries, captured the imagination of people. On Thursday evening October 3 we celebrated the Transitus...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – October 6, 2019
Last weekend we had a gathering of our parish council and our parish staff for two full days of taking a close look at our Franciscan identity, our mission statement, the signs of the current times, and from all of that, a beginning to look at where God might...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – September 29, 2019
This coming Friday, October 4, we celebrate the feast of our patron saint Francis of Assisi. A group of pilgrims from the parish returned last Friday from Italy, and we had four days in Assisi. Assisi is built on the side of a mountain, as you approach it...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – September 22, 2019
I want to thank once again, Tim Throndson who spoke two weeks ago about our parish finances. And here, I’d like to re-state what I wrote in our annual report which was distributed after all Masses a couple of weeks ago: In our 2018-2019 annual report, you will find...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – September 15, 2019
Our bishop, Luis Rafael Zarama has been promoting a plan to develop what is called a Cristo Rey school somewhere within the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. Cristo Rey is a model that reaches out to students who fall below a certain income level. This weekend there...
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