Monday Message, March 18, 2024

KNOW

Parish Leader Check In #74 tomorrow. Use this link to access. On the agenda: JPII Grants, your feedback on the First Witnesses website, and a brief conversation on what is next after last week’s meeting.

I had hoped to have the transcript ready from the bishop’s presentation, but it was St. Patrick’s day as well as that one day a year you get a little older (for me), so I didn’t do any work over the weekend. I’ll send it next Monday.

If you have not already seen it, check out the new First Witnesses website.

Adult Confirmation is this weekend in case you need to alert anyone in your parish.

If you have not already done so, log into LEAD and click Resources at the top. Enjoy.

Around the diocese:

Padre Pio relics are being presented around the diocese.

• Friday, March 22- St. Pius X, Fairfield
• Sunday, April 21- St. Jude, Monroe
• Thursday, April 25- St. Edward the Confessor, New Fairfield
• Friday, September 13- St. Catherine of Siena, Trumbull
• Monday, September 30- St. Matthew, Norwalk

The New England Catholic Biblical School invites you to join Shroud of Turin experts: Dr. Cheryl White and Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D as they discuss the theological, historical, scientific, and forensic issues surrounding a cloth that bears the mysterious image of a man who has been scourged, crucified, capped with thorns, and pierced in the right side. See this flyer for more. 

Please join Saint Joseph Parish in Danbury for a Lenten Retreat, ReLENTless in the Pursuit of God, on Saturday, March 23rd, from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm. Please register online by Saturday, March 15th.

REFLECT

When I was teaching in Knoxville, we had a diocesan in-service for teachers reflecting on the three times that God breaks the silence in the New Testament.

During his presentation, the retreat master, Archabbot Lambert Reilly, OSB (who served as the leader of St. Meinrad Seminary from 1994-2004) said that God broke the silence in the New Testament three times. But he arrived late for his presentation and never got to the third occasion in Scripture where the voice of God is heard. Intrigued, I called the seminary, tracked down the Archabbot, and asked him to tell me about the third time. It was the start of a long friendship and I still have my notes from that conversation. For years, I have used that presentation as the jumping off point for a quiz I gave students – challenging them to find the three times in Scripture when God breaks the silence.

To find that elusive third time, we need to look no further than yesterday’s Gospel.

Read the rest of the post here.

LAUGH