A Letter from Fr. Paul - January 15, 2017

Last weekend a number of parishioners asked for an update on the Cardinal Capital development proposal. We truly appreciate your continued interest. As you know, the proposal has generated a great deal of feedback. Cardinal and their architects are working hard to modify the plans to thoughtfully address some of the concerns raised. The revised plans will be available for your review when they are available. At this point, the project is not on any city public meeting agendas, but we will make you aware when it is. Thank you for following this process.

Our parish makes donations from our Special Needs Fund to various causes at Christmas, including Greater Milwaukee Free Clinic, Repairers of the Breach, Bread for the World, Pax Christi, and Greater Tosa Interfaith. That Fund is primarily the money that is placed in the baskets in front of the altar at each weekend liturgy. I have received thank you letters from these organizations, emphasizing how much good is accomplished through our donations. The Milwaukee Free Clinic also mentioned how much good was done with the gift cards donated on “Gift Sunday” in Advent. Our generosity DOES make a difference! Please consider joining those who contribute to our Special Needs Fund by dropping your donation in one of the baskets in the front of church at weekend Masses. Our children give us good example!

The International Baccalaureate Learner Profile Attribute that our school, Wauwatosa Catholic, is focusing on for the month of January is BALANCED. IB Learners understand the importance of balancing different aspects of their lives-- intellectual, physical, spiritual and emotional--to achieve well-being for themselves and others. They recognize their interdependence with other people and the world in which they live. Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life: learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

In the January 5 edition of the Catholic Herald, there was an article by Fr. Ronald Rolheiser titled “There’s danger in being a cultural warrior.” It struck me as a very balanced view of what has been going on in our Church and society. I particularly liked the quote from Daniel Berrigan that begins the article: A prophet makes a vow of love, not alienation.​ Everything we do must grow out of love and the desire to promote unity. I encourage reading it. If you do not get the Catholic Herald, you can find it by writing Ronald Rolheiser cultural warrior in your browser.

Liturgically, the Christmas season is over and we enter a short period of Ordinary Time before Lent begins. If you remember, in Ordinary Time our Gospels help us understand how we are to live as followers of Jesus. Our Gospel this weekend features John the Baptist, picking up on the theme of Advent: by the way we live our lives, we are to point others to Christ, the Light that came in to the darkness for all of us. This is the bottom line, this is what it means to live a Christian life.

As we make our way through winter, our days are gradually getting longer, the sun shines more and more each day. May Christ’s light shine through us a little stronger each day as we support each other in living as followers of Christ, bringing His Light to the world around us.

-- Paul James Portland, SDS