Fr. Sean's Weekly Column

Dear friends in Christ,
There is a lot of alliteration going on in the Old Testament passage that we hear today in the First Reading at Mass. It comes from Solomon in the Book of Wisdom – listen to the first three lines: “I prayed ..., I pleaded ..., I preferred ...” That’s a lot of p’s! And what is it that Solomon prayed for, pleaded for, and preferred more than anything else? Nothing less than holy wisdom itself. When we seek wisdom first, and not the fame and fortune of the world, as Solomon could have certainly requested, we too will know the grace that he received. When we are gifted with wisdom we have all that we need. Let us pray today that the Lord will shower us with such wisdom in all the deliberations of our life.

Dear friends in Christ,
We’ve moved into the month of October, which is always my favorite month. The temperatures are starting to drop just a bit affording us a chance to give our air conditioners a break, and it’s a great time to be outdoors, perhaps for some backyard grilling or football under the “Friday Night Lights.” There is a great feeling in the air and hopefully a pep in our step. It’s also a wonderful month in the life of the Church. October is always designated as Respect Life Month, and this first Sunday of the month is Respect Life Sunday.

Dear friends in Christ,
I always like when Moses appears in our First Reading on Sunday. As I’ve stated a number of times, I’m a big fan of Moses, and outside of Jesus (and probably Mary, too), he’s my favorite person in all of the Sacred Scriptures. In the Book of Numbers today we hear how God comes down in the cloud and strikes up a conversation with Moses, and then “takes” some of the Spirit that was on Moses and bestows it to the elders. I find that fascinating! The Spirit that Moses has, which he of course received from God, is thus sort of subdivided out and given to others, and when the elders receive some of what Moses had been given, they too are able to prophesy in the name of the Lord. That my friends is some powerful stuff!

Dear friends in Christ,
Thank you for the wonderful response to last weekend’s “text to join” Flocknote sign-up. More than 1,900 of you opted in and more are still coming in every day. That’s quite a flock! I had no idea it would be of interest to that many, but I am overjoyed at the level of excitement about it. You should have received your first messages this week including a introduction to the Word on Fire series sent this past Tuesday and my pastor’s message sent this past Thursday. If you didn’t get either of those, contract Bridget Richardson, our director of Communications.

Dear friends in Christ,
Today is Catechetical Sunday in the Church in the United States. It’s the day set aside to mark the beginning of the new Religious Education year for children, youth and adults. It’s also our first day of new RE year at CtR as classes begin this week for all our children and for junior high and high school youth ministry as well.