Dear Family,
One of the nicer things that happened to me recently was receiving a wonderful reflection. It came from a parishioner who doesn’t want to be named. I have this mental image of conversations about “Who was it?” and no one really paying attention to the thought and prayer itself. Still, I am a man of hope so I pass it on as a special gift.

“Hurricane shutters blocked the light coming through the beautiful window over the altar in our chapel. I had admired that window morning after morning as flashes of light sparkled through the golden hues. But now the window was dark and faceless. I knew of its beauty, but I could not see it.  That is what the masks we wear do to our inner light. Self-recrimination, worry, anxiety, fear and wounds block our true identity. The light of Christ is there, but it is not visible to others. Lord, help me remove the masks that shutter out your light. Let your love shine through me for all the world to see.”

END HUNGER
Dear Family,
Hunger stalks more people than we know about. A couple of weeks ago there was an article in the Sun Sentinel noting that 15% of Broward County residents don’t know where their next meal is coming from. That percentage is the largest number of people in any South Florida county. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamps) allows $4.50 a day per person. It helps, but as one person said, “That’s where food banks come in.”

Here at St. Sebastian, hunger has been a concern and efforts to deal with it have become part of our ongoing ministry. For example, during Lent we have Operation Rice Bowl and we fast for at least one meal a week and put the amount of money that meal would have cost into the fancy cardboard rice bowl. Last Lent the rice bowls gathered $1,032.50. Not bad at all...

Dear Family,
Often when we are celebrating Mass, my mind plays a little background music to accompany the “Deliver us prayer...” that follows the Our Father.

I pray “Deliver us Lord, from every evil... keep us free from sin and safe from all distress...” Keep us free from the kinds of abuses in our relationships we call sin, and safe from all distress. Notice is doesn’t say free from all distress, just safe. In other words, don’t let whatever is threatening in my life weaken my fundamental relationship with you Lord. Help me not to become so preoccupied with whatever is worrying me or hounding me, that I forget you are there.

Dear Family,
If today were not the 27th Sunday in Ordinary time, it would be celebrated as the feast of the Guardian Angels. For both my pastorates, the feast marked my installations as pastor. I tell you this so that you will be able to thank those heavenly messengers for keeping the place from totally going to pot, despite me.

By the way that’s not reference to marijuana. In fact, according to The Phrase Finder, people had been going to pot long before hippies and the 60’s. 'Going to (the) pot', meant being chopped up and boiled for food. That usage dates back at least as far as the 16th century; ...The colloquial, metaphorical usage of 'ruin; destruction' is fairly old and was in common use by the 17th century. Edmund Hickeringill used the term in The History of Whiggism, 1682: ‘Poor Thorp, Lord Chief Justice, went to Pot, in plain English, he was Hang'd.’ That meaning alludes to the fact that the journey of an animal or ingredient to the pot was a one-way trip, with a very short future ahead.