Monday Message, October 21, 2024

KNOW

Parish Leader Check In is tomorrow at 11. We will wrap up the conversation about SOPs and discuss upcoming events.

Please make save these dates for important upcoming events.

Our annual collection of Advent Resources are now live and online, including a link to all past calendars.

Our friends at St. Jude in Monroe want to invite everyone to see the relics of Padre Pio. See flyer for more information.

Parents of Confirmation students will meet with the bishop this week in Wilton. Deanery meetings with Catechists begin again in a week or two. Check out this calendar for the full list. New link here.

REFLECT

So as I look at the week ahead and review my to do lists, what we will cook for dinner, what still needs to be done around the house, and what will occupy my time at work and at home, I look to this morning’s Gospel for direction.

And, as usual, Luke interrupts my thoughts with a challenge. We have all been the man in the story from this morning’s Gospel reading. He has a wonderful harvest and makes plans to build bigger barns. But then something comes along and ruins those plans – or in his case, his own death gets in the way of the new barns he wanted to build.

In the story, the man is chastised not because he plans but because his plans do not include God. “Here is what I will do…I shall tear down…I shall build… I shall store…then I shall say to myself…”

He keeps his wealth instead of sharing it. He plans to take care of himself and forgets those in need around him. He looks out for number one and avoids eye contact with the man or woman standing next to him, those standing on the corner, those sitting across from him or suffering across the world.

It’s a story to which we can all relate.

But, as the poet reminds us, “No man is an island…”

So I go back over my schedule for the week. When is time for prayer? When will I make sure I am present to others? When will I go out of my way to share the harvest, limited though it may be at times, with others?

Planning is good. Plans that include God are better.

Have a good week.

LAUGH