Saint Mary, Saint Michael & Saint Kilian Parishes
Saint Mary, Saint Michael & Saint Kilian Parishes
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  • Home
  • About
    • Homilies
    • Pastor's Column
    • Parish Histories
    • Cemetery Rules & Regulations
  • Bulletin
  • Mass Schedule
  • Religious Education
  • Resources
  • Sacraments
    • Baptism
    • Sacrament of Penance
    • First Communion
    • Confirmation
    • Holy Matrimony
    • Becoming Catholic
  • Online Giving
  • Contact Us

April is the ‘National Child Abuse Prevention Month’

3/28/2019

 
Dear friends,
Hope you are doing well. We had had a better week. After the start of the spring, we have been having a really better weather and much of the snow is melting away rapidly. It is really pepping up.
The month of April is the ‘National Child Abuse Prevention Month’. The church asks all the members of the church to pray for the victims of the abuse nationwide. There had been rough times in the Church with regard to the unjust and inhuman abuses of children for a long time. While the church might have been handicap in handling such instances, we need to be praying for two intentions. One is for the victims of such abuses primarily and secondly for the church for wisdom and fortitude to handle the situation justly and also to ensure in all possible ways to safeguard the children and their rights.
 Apart from praying we need also to be prudent to keep our children safe in the toughest time of life. We need to take some precautionary measures to ensure their safety. Teach our kids to be cautious, tell them what are kinds of safety, physical like taking care not to be hurt, psychological safety, like being bullied, road safety like to remember the traffic rules. Teaching things like this would enable them to be prudent and, in the course, we also need to be careful, not to let those kids become doubtful and negative about the society. That would make them feel insecure. Let us not leave our children unattended by at least a trustworthy adult. This would to some extent avoid the presumed abuses of the children.
Locally in our church, kindly keep an eye on the different places like church, school, religious education classes and wherever the children need to go on their own. While the church in the United states has some procedures and policy with regard to the safety of the children, like Safe Environment training for the employees of the church, schools and any other entities where there may be contacts of adults with the children/minors, background check of the same employees, we need to be prudent at all times. We do not know what happens when.
In this context, I would like to entreat the volunteers in the church, like readers, Extraordinary ministers, and such helpers to come to church in time. Especially the readers should be in the Sacristy fifteen minutes before of the start of the mass. This would ensure the safety of the children and also the priest. This had been in practice here, but the practice has been waning in our churches, may be because they did not know the indirect reason for them to come early to the church and remain in the sacristy. Or maybe they thought that things are going well.
When some thieves break into some churches, we think of how we can protect our church. These precautionary measures are taken not that there are thieves necessarily here, but it is an act of prudence. Better be safe than sorry. It makes only little sense to put up an outcry after something has happened. Kindly pray, once again for the safety of the children all over the world especially those who are prone to such abuses and also pray for the church to handle any such instances justly and promptly, and also for the Ministers of the church in any capacity.
May all the children have a safe world.
God bless.
Yours sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Fr. A. Antony.

Not Just a Christian of Lent

3/15/2019

 
Dear friends,

Hope you are enjoying the weather little bit, in spite of its own discomforts. At least this is better than the snow storms which I believe and wish, we are done with for this year. Because we have had more than enough and the spring season is almost near at hand. Get ready to enjoy the spring of time.
The fish fry last Friday was very impressive. I heard many people say that it was good, delicious and what not. I told them all that it was because I was frying fish too! Yes, I did some frying too and most probably that was not the only reason that the fry was good. Our dedicated men from Holy Name society and even other passionate members of St. Mary’s, Women from PCCW, children who were enjoying the work and time in the kitchen and the hall, all of them did a wonderful job. It is because of their dedication and passion that the food was so good. My appreciation to all of you and who came and enjoyed the fish fry!
We are in the season of Lent, as I said, the most favorite season for us Christians, and that too Catholics. As the season has started, we are all in full swing to give up some of our favorites, like candies, cookies, sodas and beverages, meat, and many other things like this. I wonder what does this ‘giving up’ for Lent do for us. I am afraid, if they are all a kind of saving for the time after the Lent. This giving up means two important things. One is the sacrifice which we call penance and the other thing involved in this is charity.
Our sacrifice or penance in this season of Lent is in a special way a means to help us come out of our sinful attitude and life. It also is a means to partake in the passion of our Lord, to taste what he tasted with the Cross. If this giving up does not lead us to this end, it is in vain that we give up anything at all. This should remind us about how Jesus gave up His Godliness or Godhead for our sake. It is that giving up of Jesus that enabled Him to complete His salvific mission on this earth.
On His part that giving up of His Godhead was an act of charity. That act of charity brought us salvation. In a similar way our giving up of the material things as men-tioned above should not be fruitless. The fruit of this giving up should be the benefit to others. It is easy to store up those given up things for future use. If these given up of these things do not benefit anybody, it is futile. Most often we become Christians of Lent which means, we aspire to become very holy during the season of Lent and then we are back to normal. This is disappointing for anyone. Because by being like this we cheat ourselves without we ourselves not realizing it.
As we are in the season of Lent, let us not pass it with sobriety and melancholy mood, but let us celebrate it with an understanding that this season is to make us better and we will become better persons and witnessing Christians.
Blessed Lent,
Yours sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Fr. A. Antony.

Lent: Achieving the Greater Salvation from the Earthly Vices

3/3/2019

 
Dear friends, Hope you are doing well. The weather had been so obnoxious that we had to cancel Sunday Mass in Blenker. In fact, we had around some twenty people for Mass in Auburndale, too. That was a very bad day for travel, even for me to go from the rectory to the church. The snow was really piled high and I had to shovel a little bit to get out of my garage. Anyway, it is at least good that we all survived that test. We are looking for one more this weekend.

I happened to watch a video about an interesting incident. In a particular clothing store, this incident happened. The owner of the store had some weird idea in his mind apparently. Whether he wanted to gain attention for the sake of developing his store or if he wanted some cheap popularity, is not clear. So, he announced that the clothing was out for a discounted rate. The rate would be discounted by 99 percent. The people were so excited about the offer. So, everyone rushed to the store immediately to grab this incredible offer. To the shock of those greedy customers, there was not enough clothing in the store to be bought. Then they had to return home, disappointed.

But something worth noting happened there. That is, because of the huge crowd, there was a stampede and some got hurt. Those who had worn costly jewelries lost them to the robbers in the crowd. Aspiring to get things at a cheap rate, the price so cheap to the extent of being assumed as free, the people lost even what they had. I thought this is a good lesson for those who were there and also for us.
We need to learn two things from this incident. One is anything that is given at a lower cost than its original cost is not good. Because nothing can be given out lesser than the cost incurred to produce it. If it is given at a cheaper price, either the product is not good or the customers/consumers are being prepared to be cheated. Nothing else.
The other thing we need to learn is that, greed or avarice is a path to disappointment or pain. Whenever we want to acquire more materials than we actually need, that will end up in disappointment and stress. It will also lead us to physical and mental pain in few cases. As a Tamil movie song goes, a person who has greed, anger and dishonesty is an animal who knows how to talk. Most times we are also like that, if I could say.
We are going to enter into the blessed season of lent from this Wednesday, the Ash Wednesday. This season of Lent is given to us to get rid of all these vices as mentioned above and much more of the vices that we have. This renunciation is possible with prayer, fasting and penance. These virtues are the prominent virtues of this season of Lent. So, as we approach the season of Lent, let us think and decide to use this season fruitfully to achieve the greater salvation from the earthly vices.

God bless.
Yours sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Fr. A. Antony

    Pastor's Column
    Posted here is the weekly column featured in the bulletin of Saint Mary, Saint Michael & Saint Kilian parishes.

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