Twilight Twitches

Dear Family,
“Family.” What an amazing word. Today we add the adjective “holy.” The Holy Family.

I grew up in Holy Family parish in North Miami. The first Mass in Holy Family was celebrated in 1950 on the same weekend that we moved into our new house. Mom lived in that house for another 42 years.

Holy Family ‘encapsulated’ us. As I look back, in many ways our parish was a special ‘terrarium’ that called our family to grow into ‘holy’. In a house with seven kids, some days holiness seemed a distant hill. Still, we had our parents and a very loving ‘Gram.’ That increased the odds of holiness happening.

Dear Family,
With early bulletin deadlines, and still feeling under the weather, once again I turn to the wonderful resource of Creighton Online Ministries for the following reflection by Steve Scholer.

“Those who will admit to it are dating themselves if they can remember Perry Como’s hit song, "It’s Impossible." The song starts out, “It's impossible, to tell the sun to leave the sky; It's just impossible. It's impossible, to ask a baby not to cry; It's just impossible.”

And for the fans of Lewis Carrol and Winne the Pooh there is always the humorous twist on the word when Pooh says, “People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” We could all come up with lots of quotes and phrases about the word impossible, but none could better illustrate its meaning than the famous words with which the angel Gabriel comforted a distraught Mary: “For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Dear Family,
Having a rough week and being unable to provide an original “Twitch” for you, I found the following reflection online at Creighton Online Minis-tries, written by David Crawford. I think it’s well worth reading.

“Rejoice! What wonderful, joyful readings we have today! On the day we light the Joy candle, our first three readings remind us – Paul even commands us – to rejoice. Be filled with joy in our God. So rejoice!

There are elements in the Gospel reading that also point to joy, albeit in less explicit ways. First, the hopeful questions from the priests, Levites, and Pharisees demonstrate their belief that the promised Messiah would come. We can rejoice because our Messiah did come. God kept – and continues to keep – promises. Rejoice!

Dear Family,
The construction company installing the new Harbour Inlet water lines have pipe stored in our lot and are using the site to transfer ripped up pavement to dump trucks. Another company is digging up the green field to keep “Lake Sebastian” from running off into our neighbors’ yards. Some folks whose condo parking is being re-paved are using spaces in between the pipes and the rocks. The new flooring in the rectory kitchen is buckling. Some people are having post-election fidgets, and, oh yes, the pandemic is having a surge on its surge.

Just another quiet day in the neighborhood....