Up to the House of the Lord

---

January 2011

---

 

 

Christmas & New Year 2011

Dear Friends

Merry Christmas to all the wonderful people of the St. Augustine Parish family. I hope and pray these days are warm and enriching with gatherings of family and friends. May the special blessings of the Christ Child renew our faith and open our hearts. At the St. Augustine School mass last week the children and I talked about how we know Christmas is here ---- December 25 on the calendar, grandma comes to visit, birthday of Jesus, Santa brings toys, etc. But the children also understood and appreciated that when, like Mary answering the angel Gabriel, we say “yes” to God, then Christmas happens ---- Jesus is born into our lives!

A Blessed New Year to all too. I don’t hold with New Year’s resolutions but I do believe a new year can present new challenges and opportunities for growth. This can be true for our parish. So in the coming year I am praying for the healing of members’ hurts and the welcomed return of those who left in the past year, care for the sick and aging members of our parish, new membership growth especially of young adults, and outreach and service to our neighborhood. Jesus says ask and you will receive. So lets ask for these blessing in 2011.

Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

Fr. Bob
January 2, 2011

 

Dear Friends

Happy New Year to all as we begin the next leg of our journey of life and faith entitled 2011. I am sure all of us will mark this year with anniversaries, milestones, and new beginnings. My sister reminded my family that 2011 will be the 100th anniversary of the birth of our deceased mother. For others 2011 may be a significant wedding anniversary or the year we graduated from high school.

This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Liturgically we close the Christmas season with this feast but I always regard it as a transition Sunday as we move back into the public life and ministry of Jesus. This Sunday should also be a time we recall our own baptism and recommit ourselves to following Jesus in our life. Baptism should be a focal point and recurring joy of our parish, a sign of new life and growth of our parish. As I noted in earlier bulletins, if there are children in our parish who have not celebrated the Sacrament of Baptism please, as faithful and responsible Catholic parents, contact me so we can make arrangements. Jesus welcomed and blessed the children. St. Augustine Parish should do the same.

As for adult candidates for baptism, currently we do not have any individuals who will be ready for baptism this Easter. We need many prayers to the Holy Spirit for this grace. However, you may be, or you may know, someone who has been baptized in another Christian church and is now ready to join the Catholic Faith. Depending on prior religious education and participation there is still time to complete preparation and be received into the Church and confirmed this Easter. Let this be the year for you. May all our prayers guide the Holy Spirit in your life to make this decision. If you, or someone you know, would like to talk more about this do not hesitate to contact me. We would be blessed and joyous if you would join the St. Augustine Parish family.

Peace,

Fr. Bob
January 9, 2011

 

On January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, the Diocese of Memphis began observance of its 40th anniversary with a special mass at the Cathedral. At the beginning of the liturgy a Proclamation from Bishop Steib was read which recalled the original challenge of the diocese to be the “Good Samaritan Between the Rivers.” The Proclamation reminds us of the mission of “bringing the message of the Gospel and the compassionate face of Christ to people young and old; to people of social status and those forgotten by others; to people of every race, language, and nationality . . . in parishes, missions, charitable institutions and schools, through large organizations and small ministries . . . and pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit . . . and recommit yourselves to the faithful and willing service of God and neighbor.” This Proclamation will soon be posted in our church.

A few weeks earlier, announcing a reorganization of the Diocese, Bishop Steib shared questions the reorganization is designed to address. Here are some of those questions: “Are we hearing all the voices that need to be at the table? Are we serving all God’s people? Are we evangelizing? Or, are we simply trying to maintain what we have? Are we the church that is the hospital for sinners, or are we the church that is the museum of saints? Are we true to our mission to proclaim the Good News spiritually, educationally, and socially?”

Bishop Steib’s questions are good ones for us as St. Augustine Parish. Addressing these types of questions can help point the way to our future growth. An additional question is one I hear many of you asking. How can we invite back and reconcile the many parishioners who have left the parish in the past year or two? I have one suggestion. You know who these people are whereas I don’t. You grew up with them in the parish, you sat next to them in church. Make a commitment in the next two weeks to personally call two or three of these folks, hear their story including their hurts, and invite them to return to their home at St. Augustine. Another variation is for you to give me their name and I will write a letter inviting them to return. The first approach, in my judgment, is preferable as it is more personal than a letter. In either case, let us, as a parish, reach out to these members of our family and invite them home.

Peace,

Fr. Bob
January 16, 2011

 

This past week many of you received a letter from me as part of the annual Paulist Appeal. This appeal is made in all Paulist staffed parishes and centers usually in late January about the time of the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. Back in 2008 the Paulists conducted a major Capital Campaign, A Future Brighter Than Any Past. The people of St. Augustine were very generous to the Campaign. I am aware many of you are still completing your pledges and we are grateful for your faithfulness to your pledge. (A portion of your pledge payments comes back to St. Augustine ---- about $6-8,000 yearly.) The Annual Paulist Appeal is just that --- an appeal to help the Paulist Fathers meet yearly expenses. Our expectations for this appeal are much more modest. My hope for the appeal from St. Augustine is $4,500 to $5,000, and if everyone contributed just $20-25 we would easily reach that goal. Some of our members are not financially able to contribute this year so I hope others will be able to contribute $50, $100 or more. Whatever you are able to contribute will be deeply appreciated.

The work of the Paulist Fathers is both national and local. Some of our national efforts are in media ---- see the note elsewhere in this bulletin about an upcoming Paulist Productions TV special --- and evangelization ---- recall Paulist Father James DiLuzio’s preaching event here last year. Our missionary zeal is for the person outside the Catholic Church who seeks a faith community or the person in need of reconciliation to the Catholic faith. That is why the Paulists are in Tennessee where only 3-4% of the population is Catholic. Paulists first came to Tennessee in 1901 preaching missions out of the back of trailers and establishing parishes in the rural central part of the state. In 1954 they came to Memphis to staff St. Patrick Parish and then, as you are aware, they came to St. Augustine in 2002. In 1973 they had taken responsibility for Immaculate Conception Church in downtown Knoxville and John XXIII Parish at the University of Tennessee. There are more Paulist foundations in Tennessee than any other state except California. The Paulists like Tennessee!

While the parishes we serve pay us modest salaries the Paulists do not receive any funding from the bishops or the dioceses. So our biggest need is financial support to educate our seminarians --- who might serve in Tennessee in the future ---- and care for our senior Paulists---- many of whom served in Tennessee. So your generosity to the Annual Paulist Appeal is most needed and appreciated. THANK YOU!

Peace,

Fr. Bob
January 23, 2011

 

The topic this week is education. We all know how important education is for personal development and our social, civic, and economic life. The Memphis-Shelby school consolidation debate is an indication of how we value the education of our children.

Education is very important for our faith life too. We first have faith but religious education enables to understand, appreciate and express the depth and expanse of our faith. Education helps us transform our faith into action. At St. Augustine the faith education of our children is in the very capable hands of our Parish Religion Education program. Our PRE Director, Mrs. Bertha Gilmore, and her team of teachers were recently awarded the Certificate of Excellence from the Diocese of Memphis. But always Catholic Faith education begins at home. Parents should be talking about faith with their children, praying as a family, seeing that their children get to classes regularly for formal instruction. We don’t let children skip eating vegetables and we don’t let them skip religious education. The Faith must be passed to the next generation.

Often we think that once we have finished religious education during our school years we are set for life with knowledge of the Faith. But from young adulthood and through middle age and into senior years we continue to develop intellectually, emotionally, spiritually. We have new experiences and new challenges. So we hear that learning is a lifelong experience. The same is true for our religious education and development. We have opportunities at St. Augustine with both Men’s and Women’s Bible Study groups and Adult Religious Education on Sunday mornings between classes. We probably need more opportunities. There also are education opportunities offered in the Diocese by the Department of Catechesis and the Institute for Liturgy and Spirituality. Many of their current offerings are listed elsewhere in this bulletin and in brochures in the narthex. There also are the library and bookstores to expand our horizons with religious readings. Religious education! It is not just for kids!

Peace,

Fr. Bob
January 30, 2011