A Letter from Fr. Paul: November 12, 2017

MINISTRY OPPORTUNITY of the week: baptismal preparation! We are looking for a back up to Joan Quinn, who does our baptismal preparation. Sessions are held four times a year on Sunday mornings, from 11:30 until about 1 pm. A married couple would be good, but that is not a condition for involvement. Preparation would be by participating a few times with Joan and discussing the program with her. This is an extremely important and relevant ministry without a big time commitment. If you are interested, please talk with Fr. Paul.

This coming weekend we will have our annual parish meeting in the cafeteria after each Mass. Updates will be given on various topics and there will be time for questions. Please plan on attending.

I thank all who worked so hard to put on our auction and all who attended. This is the largest fundraiser for our school. An incredible amount of volunteer time, effort, and talent go into making it a success. It was a fun evening: we look forward to next year!

Three Pius parishioners were honored at the auction for their contributions to our community: Blake McDuffie for his cleaning of the church each Saturday morning over many years; Chris Graham for his support of our communications (webpage, e-mails, etc.); and John Kielich, who supports both our prayer ministry and our stewardship efforts. Congratulations and thank you for your generous service to our community.

These last weeks of the Church year, which ends with the feast of Christ the King on November 26, deal with the end time. When will it be? No one knows but the Father. What will happen? No one knows. But what we DO know is that we have to be prepared, as were the five wise virgins waiting for the bridegroom to arrive.

The foolish virgins wanted the wise virgins to share their oil, but that was impossible because the oil represents good deeds, the kind of life we lead that keeps us prepared for whatever will happen. In other words, if we live a life centered in Gospel values, if we are improving in our ability to demonstrate love of God through love of neighbor, we don’t need to be preoccupied with the end time: we will be prepared, no matter what happens!

God is on our side. He wants the best for us. We don’t have to be perfect: we just need to do our best to cooperate by continuing to grow in our ability to share his love and forgiveness with others. That is all God asks of us!

-- Paul James Portland, SDS