Message from Fr. David November 14, 2021

New ‘APOSTLE IN ACTION’ Charity Fund
In an effort to provide support to families and individual parishioners in need, we are initiating a new charity fund, Apostle in Action Charity Fund.  This parish-based fund will provide parishioners and members of our local community with some financial assistance.  Whether it be rent, utility bills, unforeseen medical expenses, or mental health expenses, I feel it is important that our parish support those who are in need.  100% of the funds donated to the Apostle in Action Charity Fund will be used to help those in need right in our own neighborhood.
This Thanksgiving, as you thank God for your many blessings, please consider donating to this special fund.
While anyone can donate to this fund at any time, we will take up a special collection every Thanksgiving Day at Mass and every Holy Thursday at Mass.  In the future, the envelope company that we use will provide a special envelope for this special collection for every Thanksgiving Day and Holy Thursday.  Thank you in advance for whatever you can do to help those in need.
*Anytime a donation is made via personal check, be sure to write “Apostle in Action Charity Fund” in the memo section.
*When a donation is made via our online giving service, Parish Soft Giving, be sure to look for the Apostle in Action Charity Fund.
REFLECTION ON THE READINGS
I think it’s pretty obvious to see that the theme for this Sunday’s readings focuses on the end-times.  Reflecting on the end-times is not a morbid preoccupation.  The Church encourages us to do so every year at this time, so we don’t forget the lesson of the fig tree, among others.  We should remain wide awake, as Jesus says, to the truth that this temporal reality is passing away, and our fragile bodies along with it.  Maybe Susan’s story can help us to understand an important lesson Jesus is trying to share.
It wasn’t hard for Susan to make a lot of money.  She had the education and the skills to get a top-paying job anywhere.  She liked the money and the things the money could buy, like a nice apartment, a really cool car, and fun vacations.  Still, she just wasn’t happy doing the things she needed to do and dealing with the people she needed to deal with in order to make the big bucks.
So she bounced from job to job, always figuring the next one would be better.  She’d start out optimistically.  But soon she’d tire of the grind and the hassle of swimming with the sharks.  That’s when her mother asked her, “So, what do you really want to do?”  That’s funny, she thought.  No one’s ever asked me that before.  She pondered the question for a long while.  Then she replied, “Do you remember when I used to teach English as a second language to kids coming into the school system when we lived down in South Texas?  I really loved that job.  Didn’t make a whole lot of money, but it was such a pleasure working with the kids, and at the end of the day I really felt like I’d accomplished something worthwhile.”
It wasn’t long before Susan was living in a small apartment, driving an older car, vacationing closer to home, and having the time of her life teaching kids to speak English as a second language.  We’re all sort of hard-wired to love and serve God and each other, and sometimes nothing else will do.
Friends, everything we attach ourselves to so dearly in this world is moving in the natural direction of its mortal limits.  If we believe there’s more to life than this, then we need to give attention to that World beyond this world.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Do not accept anything as truth that lacks love, and do not accept anything as love that lacks truth.  One without the other is a destructive lie.   —Edith Stein, Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross