A Letter from Fr. Paul - July 16, 2017

Samantha El-Azem began her work with child ministry this past week. On Thursday our staff had a pot luck lunch to welcome her and get to know her. We wish her well in her ministry to our children and I trust we will all be as supportive as possible: she will need volunteer teachers.

A common interpretation of the parable of the sower is that the seed is the Word of God looking to find fertile soil in our hearts. I like to think of US as the seeds in this sense: when you look at a seed, it doesn’t look like much. Most don’t even seem to be living. Most are small. But inside them they have all that is needed to make a plant or a bush or even a big tree! All they need are the right conditions.

We can look at ourselves and say that we are not much, that we are small, that we are sinful, that there isn’t THAT much that we can do. But, like a seed, we have incredible power within us: the love of God. Our job is to create the right conditions so that the seed of God’s love in us can flower. God has given us what is needed to create the right conditions: His Spirit (if we are listening), His Word and His Eucharist (if we are availing ourselves of them), and the Community (if we are participating regularly and sharing our gifts). All that we need is there for us: we just need to avail ourselves of them.

Related to this: elsewhere in the bulletin you will find information on a Task Force for Discipleship and Formation, established by the Pastoral Council. Its purpose is to find ways to help all of us use these God given gifts (Spirit, Word, Eucharist, Community) so that His love will flower in us and others. Please support this effort.

I will be on retreat from after Mass on Monday the 17th through Friday the 21st. Please keep me in your prayers, as you will be in mine. Thank you.

-- Paul James Portland, SDS