A Letter from Fr. Paul - Sunday, October 24th

I am pleased to report we have found a new Director of Liturgy and Music, Catherine Reich, who will begin on November 1st.  We thank Kathy Wellenstein for her faithful and dedicatedservice to our community.  Kathy will work with Catherine for a short while before completely retiring.  A profile of Catherine will be in the November Parish Press, which will be out shortly.  Please give Catherine a warm Pius welcome and keep her in your prayers as she adjusts to the many aspects of her new ministry.
 
We have received word (and pictures) that three more wells have been completed in Tanzania.  That makes 8 that Pius parishioners have built in that country this year, in addition to contributing to the well in Deacon Simon’s Kenyan hometown.  PACT!!  More information on the wells will be included in the Parish Press.
 
Some of you might not have noticed, but we have a container with bulletins on the wall of the church, to the left of the three entrance doors.  Bulletins for the upcoming weekend are placed there on Friday afternoons.  Past and current bulletins are also available on our website.
 
In our Gospel readings over the summer months, we have been following Jesus and his disciples as they make their way to
Jerusalem, where Jesus will enter the city on a donkey and begin the events of Holy Week.  Remember I said that Jesus had turned his focus from preaching to the crowds and healing to instructing his small group of disciples, his leadership team, so to speak.  Over the course of this journey, we have had three predictions of his passion and death with inappropriate responses each time from the disciples.
 
Mark emphasizes the blindness of the disciples – and us – by placing the cure of a blind man at Bethsaida right at the beginning of this final journey and the cure of the blind man, Bartimaeus, our Gospel this weekend, at the very end of the journey. (The entry into Jerusalem follows immediately after today’s Gospel in Mark). 
 
The first story emphasizes that having our blindness removed is a process:

1. Jesus puts spit in the blind man’s eyes
2. Jesus asks what he sees
3. The man replies that he can only see partially
4. Jesus touches his eyes again
5. The man sees perfectly

It is clearly a process. The Bartimaeus story emphasizes that it is FAITH that will remove our blindness: Jesus says to Bartimaeus, Go your way, your faith has saved you.
 
The point for us is that the reduction and removal of our spiritual blindness (or we might say being able to see as GOD sees, not as humans see) is a process, a gradual, lifelong process, that happens through faith.  We cannot do it alone: we need God and we need faith.
 
That is why it is so important for us to read and listen to scripture and homilies, to spend quiet time with the Lord, to worship with the community, to avail ourselves of the sacraments, to minister to those most in need.  These are the principal helps that God gives us to move us along in our faith journey out of blindness to seeing as God sees.
 
Am I using all of these opportunities to move out of my spiritual blindness?  Which one could I use more and how can I plan to do it, so that growth REALLY happens? 
 
Let us thank God who is always there to help us and let us support each other in prayer, as we struggle to see as God sees.
 
Church sign of the week:  If you want to talk to God, choose a quiet place and talk to Him.  If you want to see him, send him a text while driving.