Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is this Thursday, Nov. 23rd. As mentioned above, we will have Mass at 9 AM. Thanksgiving is a good day to thank God for all the blessings we have received. I want to thank God for each of you and for your generosity to the parish with your time, talent, treasure and prayer. We may be a small parish but we have a mighty reputation to live up to. I thank God and pray that we can continue to spread God’s love to all we meet.
Don’t forget the Evergreen Sale to raise money to help the poor with heating bills this winter. See Nicole or Judy with your order. This is the last day to order.
We have done well with the Annual Bishop’s Appeal. We have reached over 100% of our goal with 49 pledges. Thank you to those who have made a pledge. There is still time to make a pledge and if you haven’t it would be good to do so. Things happen during the year and sometimes those who made pledges cannot fulfill them, so a few extras would be good. All pledges have to be in today, November 19th.
We are about to begin our 90th year as a parish. We are looking for more history of the parish as well as ideas on how to celebrate this great anniversary. Why not spend a little time looking at the pictures of the priest and deacons who have served here? Maybe you will be enlightened by the Holy Spirit to contribute a great idea or two for this coming year.
At the end of the Church Liturgical Year, we are given readings about the Parousia, the second coming of Christ. This is especially true in today’s second reading. Paul’s first Letter to the Thessalonians is the oldest New Testament Scripture, we have. It was written about 20 years after Jesus’ Ascension into heaven. The early Church expected Jesus to return quickly. Paul is telling them and us to always be prepared for Jesus’ return but we don’t know when he will come back, neither the day nor the hour. Paul is telling them and us not to sit around speculating when Jesus will return but to get to work spreading his word and his love. “Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.”
To emphasize this, we are given the example of the worthy wife in our first reading from the Book of Proverbs. This worthy wife is an example for all, women and men. She stays alert working day and night doing good and reaching out to the poor and needy.
For our Gospel we have the parable of the three servants, who are given talents by their master, according to their ability. The five, two and one talents talked about in the Gospel were huge sums of money and we all know what each servant did with his master’s money. Two made more and one just buried it. We also read that the master rewarded those who made more but punished the one who didn’t. Given our definition of talents, it is not a stretch to simple say God gives us all talents and we are supposed to use our God given talents to better the world. Each of us is talented in God’s eyes and we need to use that talent, not just bury it.
Let us continue to pray for peace in the world. Let us also pray for vocations to the church. Let us pray for the sick of the parish. Let us pray that all will come to respect life. Let us pray for one another and for the canonization of Father Tolton.