I like to think of myself as a semi-organized person, however if you were to walk into my office and look at my desk and shelves many would probably disagree. Yet amongst my organized chaos I am able to be productive and create. My piles have a way of keeping my mind active and even with everything going on, generally I am pretty good at knowing exactly where the things I need are.
What do we create? Are the things we create productive? At times we forget that our human nature was created by God as God’s greatest achievement. That’s right, we are God’s greatest creation! (Don’t roll your eyes, yes YOU are part of God’s greatest creation) When we realize that we have been created out of love, as the greatest of all of God’s creation, then it should give us a sense of purpose. The work that we participate in should therefore also be reflective of the nature of God’s creation working through us! By what we do, we create, and what we create should reveal love. Now this may seem like a stretch, but even our everyday tasks have the ability to bring glory to God if we are cognizant of it. When we do that task that may seem so boring or ordinary, we need to reshape our attitude and outlook to see the value to God’s creation we are bringing to life. I know this can be difficult, but I have encountered some people who instead of creating life, love, harmony, peace, justice, etc., they focus on creating discord, disunity, disharmony, etc. This goes directly against the nature God creates us for. Our words and actions should bring life, and people together. When words and actions create the opposite, we need to reevaluate our purpose and life to reorient ourselves to be more life giving.
One great way to ‘reset’ is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This sacrament is a beautiful opportunity to reorient our lives and get more in tune with the mercy and love God created us in. Another great way to reorient ourselves is by acts of kindness towards others.
God creates us in love, to be and bring love to the world. If we’re not creating love by our lives we’re doing something wrong. Let’s make sure we live as God created us, and intended us to be!
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On a side note, our parish finance council is looking at our 2021- 2022 budget. I can tell you the budget is not looking good for this fiscal year. After the budget’s approval, a more detailed sharing of the numbers will be given to you. As part of the budget we are budgeting a weekly collection amount of $25,000. This is an important number for us to hit each week. I am asking all of us to make an honest effort in supporting St. Mary’s to meet the needs of our vibrant parish. (Please note, we only exceeded that number once in the month of September)
Keep Smiling Fr. Bryan
Keep Smiling
Fr. Bryan