Aim Somewhere

04-02-2017Weekly ReflectionFr. Brian Jazdzewski

Some weeks have elapsed since I composed a weekend bulletin article. Samuel McCarty's presence has lifted this task from me for a short while. His presence has also lifted the spirits of many within our parish through the inspiration he provides through ministry and witness. Many have remarked how reawakened their senses have become knowing that a talented young man, like Samuel, and others around our diocese are responding to God's call to serve us in the Diocese of La Crosse. I continue to find myself being effected through his energy and idealism which can become clouded through the distractions of daily ministry. Continue to pray for him (us) as we all seek out God's gifts among us and also pray for more vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.

Along those lines, there has been some buzz in recent weeks about Pope Francis' remarks about married priests in the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. Making remarks about that subject could take pages of prose. However, there have been a few Catholics, from our parish cluster, who mentioned their respect and admiration for the priesthood as it has been known to us for centuries. They admire the commitment priests have to their ministry, including their people, and would feel awkward if there was a significant change in how that looked. We may not know where Pope Francis' questions may lead, we do know, however, that we continue to need deepening examples of faithfulness among our priests and Catholic faithful. Regarding deepening faithfulness, we all know that the most sacred days of our liturgical calendar are soon among us. I'm referring specifically to the Holy Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday inclusive. You remember, and will hear me say, that these days are celebrated as one. I really encourage you to prayerfully consider immersing yourself into the prayer of the Church during these days by attending the services. Along those lines, the Church has always invited the faithful to consider the Paschal Fast: abstaining from meat and snacks from sunset Holy Thursday until after the conclusion of the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday. Perhaps you might even assign an intention to your fasting, for example: a suffering family member or friend, reparation for your sins or those of others, more vocations, world peace, politicians or some other intention which is important to you.

Since my article is titled Aim Somewhere, there is an assortment of topics within this article from which you can choose to aim. My final topic is the 100th Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima during this year of 2017. Specifically, the Church will mark the months of May through October during which we memorialize the 13th day of each month to mark when the Blessed Mother appeared to the pilgrim children in Fatima. The crux of Our Lady's message is for reparation for sin, personally and globally. She instructed us: to receive Holy Communion regularly, daily if possible; regular adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, daily if possible even if for just a few minutes; pray the Rosary, daily if possible; make sacrifices; practice the devotion of five First Saturdays.

I'd encourage those of you with the resources to discover the content in an article titled "Fatima and the 'signs of the times' needs a closer look," by Fr. Regis Scanlon, OFMCap which is found in the January 2017 issue Homiletic and Pastoral Review. A quick search using your preferred browser will quickly connect you to the article. There are some really interesting connections about Church history, Our Lady of Fatima, the devil, peace, God's justice, signs of the times, and the 100th Anniversary of the apparitions just to name a few.

To conclude, our Lord has provided us the tools necessary for our spiritual growth and salvation. He has also provided us the freedom to choose our priorities. We continue to add tools to our spiritual growth bag of tricks which we find useful. And so we continue to shop for those tools in the presence of God knowing that He leads us to things which are most helpful. May Our Lord's guidance and the intercession of Ss. Joseph and Mary help you to keep the Lord in the center of all that you do.

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