News - February 2017 RSS Feed

Dear friends in Christ,
This weekend marks our final Sunday of Ordinary Time before we begin our 40 day journey of Lent. Ash Wednesday is this Wednesday, March 1. Recall that it is not a Holy Day of Obligation but it is an important day for us as we begin the holy season of Lent. We come to have our foreheads marked with ashes as a call to conversion and a sign of our mortality – “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

We are at the end of Resisting Happiness. Happiness is a choice and resistance always stands between you and happiness.

We live in a world of instant gratification. News gets to us on our smartphones or iPads the moment it happens.

Dear friends in Christ,
We are just 10 days away from the start of the holy season of Lent. I’ll have all the details of our many Lenten activities, including the Ash Wednesday schedule, in next week’s bulletin. If you want a sneak peek, however, you can see it on our website now. But before we get to all of that I think we would be well served to begin thinking today about what kind of Lent we want.

“Our lives change when our habits change,” is an often used quote from Matthew Kelly.

Dear friends in Christ,
This weekend we welcome back an old friend of Christ the Redeemer, Fr. John Gibbons. I say “old” with a great deal of affection. Fr. John is a priest of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown in Pennsylvania, but he is no stranger to us at CtR. In fact, he got his start here at the parish. He was one of the first parishioners I met when I became pastor in 2004. A successful businessman, he was active in several ministries and could always be counted upon to help out in a pinch. We played golf together a few times and I enjoyed getting to know him. But as I did, I began to understand that there was something more that was calling him. Though well into his 50s by that time, he desired to serve the Church in a more profound way. He wanted to be a priest.

Dear friends in Christ,
On this Super Sunday we hear a super Gospel from St. Matthew (sorry, I couldn’t resist!) - “You are the light of the world.” Beautiful words from our Savior, but do we take them to heart? Do we see ourselves as that light sent to the world? Perhaps we hold back in letting our light shine for one reason or another. Maybe we’re burned out. Maybe we need to change something within us so we can glow again. Ask the Lord for the grace to see the light within you, and then go out to the world so that by your actions, words and deeds others might see the light of Christ in you.

Even when we know God’s way is the best way to live we resist. I know I should eat healthy and exercise but I come up with all kinds of excuses not to. It is the same with our relationship with God and our quest for happiness.