Church of The Holy Spirit

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, January 4, 2009

NO BULLETIN THIS WEEK

The Mass Intentions for the week of January 4 to January 10, 2009 are listed on Page 2.

We pray for all of our beloved dead, especially

TUESDAY, Jan. 6

Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † George Dermarker

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 7

Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Mary Waychison

THURSDAY, Jan. 8

Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Doug and Peter Lancefield

FRIDAY, Jan. 9

Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Mary Waychison

and all those who have lost their lives in Afghanistan, that they may find eternal rest and refreshment in the glorious Kingdom of heaven . . . We pray, O God . . . Glory to God in the Highest . . . .

For the sick, especially for all those who have asked for our prayers . . . for healing for the sick . . . for courage for those in pain . . . for those in hospitals, nursing homes or confined to their homes by illness or infirmity . . . for those who feel forgotten . . . for all care-givers . . . We pray, O God. . . . Glory to God in the Highest . . . .

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, January 11, 2009

Resolutions We Can Keep

Baptism of the Lord

On Nov. 30, 2008, the praying community stood together on the threshold of a new liturgical year, looking back with gratitude and ahead with hope at the wondrous workings of God within our individual and collective lives.

Today, we stand together in the early days of 2009. Looking back over 2008, we thank God for the joys and blessings the year held and, since none of us is perfect, we cannot help but hold some regret in our hearts. Confessing what we have done and what we have failed to do, we are bound to admit that our care for the whole human family has not always been conscientious. Nor have we been true reflections of the compassion of our God for others. We have also been lacking in fastidious stewardship of this world and its resources.

All this we know, and of all our failings God is indeed aware. Nevertheless, the fact that we are still here is an indication that God is allowing us both the time and the opportunity to turn our regrets into resolutions. Therefore, now is not the time for sadness or discouragement; now is the time for renewed efforts and a fresh start.

Rather than allow guilt to weigh us down, the new year invites our wholehearted surrender to grace. In God's grace lies our hope and our assurance that this year can be different and better. This year can be our gift to God just as grace is God's gift to us. God's gifts of grace are clearly enunciated on each of January's Sundays.

On the feast of Epiphany, grace compels us to remember that God's salvific plan is universal, allowing no limitations or exclusions. Regret may cause us to look back at 2008 with the sad realization that we have openly excluded others or neglected to defend their God-given rights to freedom and to fellowship in the human family. But grace invites our renewed resolve to include all and to exclude no one from our care, our service, our love.

We celebrate Jesus' baptism on Jan. 11, and with it the inauguration of his action as God's servant, whose mission of justice, healing and liberation was forever to impact the injustices and evils that threaten human well-being. Jesus' wholehearted embrace of his mission reminds us that our baptism brings with it a similar mission. While we may look back at 2008 and regret the manner in which we accepted and exercised this mission, grace enables us to transform those regrets into resolutions. Grace empowers us to work and to witness as Jesus did, so as to foster the growth of God's justice, especially for those whose rights to this justice are being denied.

Discipleship is the theme offered for our consideration on Jan 18. In their readiness to respond to God's call, Samuel, Andrew and Simon encourage our own responsiveness. However, if we are truthful with ourselves, we cannot help but regret those instances during 2008 when our following of Jesus was not so careful and not so authentic. When the struggle of living the counterculture seems overwhelming, some of us succumb to "just getting by" or to mediocrity that keeps the peace but challenges nothing and no one. Aware of our regrets in this regard, let us be even more aware that grace can empower us to a new resolve in following Jesus more nearly, more truly, one day at a time.

January's lessons are rounded out on the 25th as Jonah, Paul, Simon, Andrew, James and John remind us that our mission is one of drawing others to God, to Jesus. Too frequently, we ourselves may be the stumbling block that prevents others from experiencing the goodness of God. Our hypocrisy, our mixed signals, our lives that are not fully integrated into one authentic witness through faith and prayer – all of these hinder our efforts at evangelization.

Therefore, with our regrets to offer us impetus, let us repent and then relegate our failures to the past. Then, by God's grace, let us transform our regrets into resolutions: to be better so as to do good, to recognize that we are loved by God so as to love others better, to accept that we are "sinners in rehab" so as to be more understanding and less judgmental of the failings of others. Above all, let us acknowledge and accept this new-year for what it is: God's gift.

We pray for all of our beloved dead, especially

TUESDAY, Jan. 13

Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Mary Waychison

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 14

Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Mary Waychison

THURSDAY, Jan. 15

Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Patsy Royer

and all those who have lost their lives in the Gaza strip, that they may find eternal rest and refreshment in the glorious Kingdom of heaven . . . We pray, O God . . . Glory to God in the Highest . . . .

Baptism of the Lord

Baptism The church celebrates the Baptism of the Lord at the beginning of the calendar year as part of the Christmas-season. Baptism is how we are taken up into the mystery of the Incarnation. God is in the world in Christ, and by baptism we have been incorporated into the body of Christ.

His story and his journey now define us. His paschal mystery of surrender and suffering, glory and eternal life are now our path and our destiny. The challenge for both liturgy and for our personal lives outside of church is to somehow bring the astonishing implications of who we are and what God has called us to be and do into our daily experience.

The wonder of our baptism needs to pervade our very consciousness, from our first waking moment to our final sigh before sleep, and even in our dreams. Do we know who we are in Christ? Do we feel the assurance that flows into us continually from God's voice calling us into existence, sustaining us in love?

That voice says to us, "You are my beloved son." "You are my beloved daughter." It is not a distant voice, but as intimate to us as our own breath and heartbeat. It flows within our consciousness like a lover's conversation. God dwells in us, filling us with light.

Do we let this light guide us in our problem-solving and coping, our relationships, even our frustrations and conflicts? If we are what the Gospel tells us we are, God's own children, what can threaten us or prevent us from standing with Jesus in every situation, saying what he would say, doing what he would do?

Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, Christ is present through us, active in us because we are part of his body in the world. A baptized life develops day by day and in stages, like all natural development. We gradually come to maturity through experience and in relationship.

The church offers us the rich sacramental context that supports us in a living web of nourishment, forgiveness, healing and love. Every day, in every way, up or down, in sorrow or joy, privation or abundance, to the day we take our last breath, God is part of us because we are part of God.

Baptism guarantees this. Baptism calls us today to be ready to follow Jesus through the rest of the year. As the church guides us through the seasons of Lent, Easter, Pentecost and Ordinary Time, we will grow with Christ and become more like him as his words inhabit our thoughts and his love takes hold in our hearts.

If this seems like an ideal life, it is, but because God had called us into Christ, it is our real life, our becoming now who we will be for all eternity.

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, January 18, 2009

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Call to Discipleship Rings out for All of Us!
Jan 18-09

In today's first reading about Samuel as well as in the Gospel, we are offered tried and- true methods for recognizing and responding to that call from God that we label vocation. Notice that in each of the calls featured in today's scripture selections, vocation is represented as a process that evolves during a dialogue.

Together, Samuel and Eli eventually discerned that the younger man was experiencing an overture from God. This was not understood with absolute clarity immediately; rather, there was a process of wondering, puzzling and waiting. This process is again repeated with the disciples in today's Gospel. They heard about Jesus from John the Baptizer and were curious to learn more. Through their conversation with Jesus, it began to be clear that this learning would take time – it would grow out of being together and relating to one another carefully and truthfully.

Only gradually would their learning about Jesus and learning from Jesus develop into loving acceptance and realization of who he was. Out of that process grew a vocation. The word vocation comes from the Latin vocare, which means to call. God calls each of us to come together into one people fashioned in the image of Jesus Christ. It is by Christ's own vocation that we are gathered.

Contrary to traditional thinking, vocation does not pertain only to clergy or religious life. Vocation is God's call to every human being to come to the fullest and best realization of ourselves in Christ. Told simply but dramatically in several stages, the call of Samuel by God represents a template of the vocational experience. Included in that experience are: The mysterious ways in which the divine can be manifested in our lives, even while we are asleep; the necessity of taking the call seriously and acting on it; the place of discernment – others are sometimes needed to determine the source and authenticity of a call; the necessity of ongoing formation, which helps the believer to formulate the proper response to each call.

Although God calls, not everyone is listening all the time. To hear that call and to allow it to guide our choices and shape our future requires discipline in order to prevent ourselves from remaining or becoming spiritually deaf. So many voices call for our attention; so many activities distract us. Therefore, we need to make a serious effort if we are to become and remain sensitive to the divine presence in our lives.

Others often help us to hear, to discern, to respond. In fact, most often it is in our daily human experience that the divine voice of God can be heard. But we also have to help ourselves. Paul reminds us in the second reading that the Holy Spirit dwells in each of us as in a temple. However, in order to become aware of that holy presence and to avail ourselves of the Spirit's light and guidance, believers must cultivate quiet within themselves where sensitivity and realization can grow.

Perhaps we can become more attentive to the Spirit by slowing down, tuning out and turning off of all that would call us elsewhere. Once we have accomplished this, at least for a little while, then we can hear and handle and heed the call of God. At its very essence, that call enables the believer to realize the fact stated so clearly by Paul: "You are not your own" (1 Cor 6:19). Perhaps this is the mantra that will help us to attune our hearts and minds to God and to the Son, who was sent to live among us. Jesus lived and died acknowledging that he belonged to God. He was not his own.

Only by listening to and living by God's many calls to us do we become who we are intended to be. Samuel did that. Paul did, Andrew did, Peter did. Will we listen? Will we cultivate that quiet deep within, where God is waiting to speak? Jesus himself taught us how. For the most part, Jesus was a man on the move. He was an itinerant preacher who, by his own admission, had nowhere to lay his head; his life was spent journeying from person to person, place to place in order to bring an experience of God to each of his fellow travellers. When he withdrew to renew his strength and resolve, the hospitality of relatives and friends enabled him to cultivate inner quiet where he could enter into profound communion with God.

With this in mind, as today's Gospel is proclaimed in our hearing, we can more fully understand the significance of the exchange between Jesus and his first disciples. When they approached him and began to accompany him for a while, Jesus asked what they were looking for. Their answer was a question: "Where are you staying?"

True to the Johannine penchant for packing powerful messages into seemingly simple statements, this conversation underscores the fact that the disciples weren't simply seeking a geographical location, nor was Jesus offering to give them his physical address. Rather, those early followers wanted the directions to that special place in his life where Jesus had cultivated quiet so as to commune with God. It was this they wanted to tap into, and it was this very experience that Jesus was willing to share.

"Come and you will see!" he said to them. With this response, the Johannine Jesus made it clear that he was willing to welcome his followers into his life and into his relationship with God. Through faith, they would begin to see as he saw and to live and love as he did. He could just as easily have said to them, "Come and believe!" Faith is the seeing that fosters discipleship.

Today, just as he did over two millennia ago, Jesus bids us to come and see and share in that quiet where he has cultivated communion with God. "If today you hear God's Word, harden not your hearts." Amen.

We pray for all of our beloved dead, especially

TUESDAY, Jan. 20
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Rose Locicero

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 21
St. Agnes
8:30 a.m. - † Tony Barrie

FRIDAY, Jan. 23
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Mary Waychison

May they may find eternal rest and refreshment in the glorious Kingdom of heaven . . . We pray, O God . . . Lord, hear our prayer . . . .

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, January 25, 2009

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Call to Discipleship

During the Rwandan genocide of 1994, seven times more people were killed than by the U.S. bomb that fell on Hiroshima. The weapons of choice were screwdrivers and machetes. While much of the world shrank from this carnage in horror, Swiss missionary Philippe Gaillard remained in Rwanda tending to the sick, the suffering and the starving survivors of the onslaught.

Was his a mission impossible, or simply one of the many improbable places where human beings have an opportunity and an obligation to alleviate the sufferings of others? Gaillard's story is one of several that were gathered into a book by Carol Bergman, Another Day in Paradise (Orbis Books, Maryknoll, N.Y.: 2003).

The book also recounts the experience of American relief worker Christine Darcas, who said of her time serving in Chad, "As drought spread across the Sahara, I finally had the opportunity to roll up my sleeves and get into the field, to abandon my role as a bystander and make a difference."

British nurse Iain Levine has worked for more than 10 years in Sudan and Mozambique, attempting to stave off what seems an unbeatable famine that continues to claim the lives of thousands. John Sifton, an American human rights attorney, has offered humanitarian aid in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Of the people and the places where he serves, he says, "War here has caused its inevitable and common consequence, collateral effect on civilian life with food and water shortages, night after night bombing, ground shaking, children screaming and general instability all around."

Where others would find reason to escape such misery, Sifton, Levine, Darcas, Gaillard and so many others remain on task – true missionaries who look at what the rest of the world regards as an impossible situation and ask, "What can I do to make things better? In God's name, for God's people, what can I do?"

In today's scripture selections, we meet early missionaries; it is their experiences that model for us what it means to answer God's call. Not mentioned in today's first reading are the lengths to which Jonah went to avoid preaching God's word among those whom he regarded as outside the pale of acceptability. As non-Jews, the Ninevites were abhorrent to Jonah, and for all practical purposes, his seemed a mission impossible made all the more improbable by his unwillingness to cooperate. Nevertheless, despite all odds, the mission was accomplished by God's good grace working through the most unlikely people.

In today's Gospel, Mark features Jesus at the beginning of his earthly mission. In the minds of some, that mission of proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and calling people to repentance might have been better entrusted to educated professionals. Their training in preaching, teaching and catechesis would seem to have prepared them for communicating the importance of conversion. Their ability to speak with authority and to draw upon the auspices of temple and synagogue to support their message would have better suited them for the mission at hand.

Yet, Jesus inaugurated what may have seemed a mission impossible or at least improbable. His chosen associates had little by way of human standards to recommend them for the task; the outcome seemed unsure at best. But Jesus called and the fishermen responded, and in that dynamic of call and response, they began to be what Jesus intended: fishers who would draw into the saving net of God's grace all who agreed to repent and believe. In the same way, God calls each of us to mission. That call overcomes the impossibility of whatever we are intended to do for God and for others, despite the circumstances.

Today's readings are a case in point. Jonah approached his mission grudgingly. Jesus, on the other hand, seemed upbeat and optimistically resolute. Both missions met with success. This, in itself, constitutes eloquent testimony to the power of God's word and grace to be effective in all circumstances. The fact that we remember Jonah only occasionally, always with mindfulness of his bigotry, contrasts with how we invoke and celebrate Jesus. In him, the love and mercies of God have become incarnate and available to sinners. Unlike Jonah, who spat out his message and succeeded in spite of himself, Jesus made the living word of God speak to every human situation.

As these two preachers stand before us today, their differences challenge all who convey the good news of God's word to others. Which approach will we choose? Something in Jesus' approach to his mission attracted others to want to join him. Mark would explain this attraction repeatedly by attesting that Jesus spoke with authority. His authority was rooted in his relationship with God, and this relationship empowered Jesus to announce decisively the imminence of the reign of God and to call for repentance and belief. But change for the sake of change, however radical or dramatic, is not enough. Repentance and turning away from all else toward God must be translated into belief, a positive commitment in faith to live differently because of Jesus.

In order to launch this mission of repentance and belief, Jesus called to himself followers who would represent him as he represented God. As the narrative of his recruitment efforts is read today, it cannot remain simply a statement of history. Rather, in his reaching out to Simon, Andrew, James and John, believers are to recognize a template of their own vocation. Like those earliest followers, in the moment of our being called, Jesus is revealed to us. In that moment, a relationship is born that must be nurtured daily and deliberately through prayer and the faithful practice of our mission.

It is up to each of us how we shall further this mission in the world. Will we be like Jonah? Or like Jesus? God calls each of us to mission. That call overcomes the impossibility of whatever we are intended to do for God and for others, despite the circumstances.

We pray for all of our beloved dead, especially

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 28

Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Alfred Mariampillai

May they may find eternal rest and refreshment in the glorious Kingdom of heaven . . . We pray, . . . Lord, hear our prayer . . . .