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 – 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 – September 8, 2019
Today (Sunday) a group of pilgrims from our parish leaves for Italy; in our time there we will visit Assisi, Siena, and Venice, and we will also stop at Greccio, where Francis of Assisi famously re-enacted the Nativity story, and also LaVerna, where Francis received...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – September 1, 2019
In last Sunday’s gospel we heard an image of what the kingdom of God looks like; Jesus, in speaking to the crowd, says “And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 13:29)....
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – August 25, 2019
Over the past week or so, both of our schools have begun classes for the 2019-2020 school year and once again our classrooms and playgrounds are filled with students from pre-K all the way up to 8th grade. Welcome back to all our students and teachers and our prayers...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – August 18, 2019
On Friday, we bade farewell to Br. Jason Damon, who spent the summer with us here as an intern, and who, in a short period of time, became very involved in the life of the parish. Jason had never seen this parish until his arrival and had asked his formation directors...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – August 11, 2019
The week before last we friars were in Denver for a gathering of friars from the six U.S. provinces which are in the process of merging into one province. It was a kind of “get to know you” gathering, as the six provinces look 3-4 years down the road to eventually...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – August 4, 2019
August is here, summer vacation is flying along and it’s later this week that our teachers return to the classroom and the following week, Thursday, August 15, that our students arrive back in class. It always goes fast. We have two schools here at St. Francis,...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – July 28, 2019
This coming week three of us friars will be in Denver, Colorado for a week-long gathering of friars from around the country called a “chapter of mats,” after a term used by the early Franciscans. Some background: there are seven provinces of Franciscan “O.F.M.” friars...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – July 21, 2019
Last weekend we heard the familiar gospel story of the Good Samaritan, a story that has become so familiar that it has lost its edge. In the story, you’ll recall that it’s the Samaritan who helps the wounded man on the side of the road, only after the wounded...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – July 14, 2019
Our parish received a grant from the Lily Foundation to study the biblical notion of “calling” – on what it means to be called and how that plays out in our everyday lives. The grant is for five years, and is in collaboration with an initiative called “Communities of...
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 – September 8, 2019
Today (Sunday) a group of pilgrims from our parish leaves for Italy; in our time there we will visit Assisi, Siena, and Venice, and we will also stop at Greccio, where Francis of Assisi famously re-enacted the Nativity story, and also LaVerna, where Francis received...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – September 1, 2019
In last Sunday’s gospel we heard an image of what the kingdom of God looks like; Jesus, in speaking to the crowd, says “And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 13:29)....
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – August 25, 2019
Over the past week or so, both of our schools have begun classes for the 2019-2020 school year and once again our classrooms and playgrounds are filled with students from pre-K all the way up to 8th grade. Welcome back to all our students and teachers and our prayers...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – August 18, 2019
On Friday, we bade farewell to Br. Jason Damon, who spent the summer with us here as an intern, and who, in a short period of time, became very involved in the life of the parish. Jason had never seen this parish until his arrival and had asked his formation directors...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – August 11, 2019
The week before last we friars were in Denver for a gathering of friars from the six U.S. provinces which are in the process of merging into one province. It was a kind of “get to know you” gathering, as the six provinces look 3-4 years down the road to eventually...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – August 4, 2019
August is here, summer vacation is flying along and it’s later this week that our teachers return to the classroom and the following week, Thursday, August 15, that our students arrive back in class. It always goes fast. We have two schools here at St. Francis,...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – July 28, 2019
This coming week three of us friars will be in Denver, Colorado for a week-long gathering of friars from around the country called a “chapter of mats,” after a term used by the early Franciscans. Some background: there are seven provinces of Franciscan “O.F.M.” friars...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – July 21, 2019
Last weekend we heard the familiar gospel story of the Good Samaritan, a story that has become so familiar that it has lost its edge. In the story, you’ll recall that it’s the Samaritan who helps the wounded man on the side of the road, only after the wounded...
St. Francis of Assisi Pastor’s Column – July 14, 2019
Our parish received a grant from the Lily Foundation to study the biblical notion of “calling” – on what it means to be called and how that plays out in our everyday lives. The grant is for five years, and is in collaboration with an initiative called “Communities of...
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