From Our Pastor: Be Prepared!

The motto of the Boy Scouts of America is “Be Prepared.” This last week my homily was asking the question, What are you giving to God? If it’s not everything, then start today because the Lord desires our whole self. The scout motto plays into this. Are we prepared to see our God face to face? The end of the Church year makes us take inventory of our preparedness. We will see the Lord in our judgement, and when we do, what are we presenting to Him? If it’s something good we’ve done that sounds great, but what about the rest? If it isn’t our entire self that we can give to Him, then we need to start working to get rid of those things in our life that we don’t want to present to the Lord. He desires your whole heart now, so that when we see Him face to face, we are used to responding with our entire self.

We begin this practice of giving our entire self to the Lord in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, God is desiring all of you, and you see Him face to face there. Start to look upon the face of God in the Eucharist and understand that He gives you all of Himself. So start peering into the Eucharist, and in your reception of Him, give Him everything. There is a thought-provoking quote, “Hell is NOT full of people whom God rejected; it is full of people who rejected God.” If we don’t give our whole self, then we are rejecting the Lord in some aspect of our life. Keep allowing the Lord to work in you, and through His sacraments change you more and more to be able to give Him everything now so that we are truly living out that motto for our judgement: BE PREPARED! Are you prepared?

As we look ahead, we are looking at scary high gas bills this winter. What makes this concerning is collections have been considerably down. We are definitely trying to discover how to deal with this reality. So, we will be keeping the church slightly cooler, as one of the efforts to deal with it. As another part of this we are looking into the need to replace the church boiler, as it’s over 100 years old. We will keep you posted.

Lastly, in conjunction with Quincy University, November 28 at 7:00 p.m., we will be hosting the first ever “Lessons and Carols.” Who doesn’t love hearing the stories of Christmas and singing Christmas Carols and Advent Songs as we prepare for that great feast? Everyone does! So come join us. Also, please keep December 1 and 2 at 6:30 p.m. open and available for a parish mission. We are bringing musician and speaker, Luke Spehar, to our parish. It will be a great opportunity of growth and preparation in Advent. You will love this opportunity. Bring your kids and friends!