Twilight Twitches

Guest "Twitcher” - Simon Rave
Dear Parish Family,
I would like to start off by thanking everyone who made this once in a lifetime experience possible. Now back from my pilgrimage, I would like to share some of the most memorable experiences I had in Poland. The greatest of them all was the opportunity to meet people from all around the globe, even the countries that seemed to only exist in my geography textbook.

Guest Twitcher: Marcus Mickey

Dear Fellow Parishioners,
Thank you, or as said in Polish: Dziekuje! I had a trip of a lifetime and now that I have returned from World Youth Day, I hope I can regale you with just a few of the memories I made along the way. The beauty of World Youth Day was getting to meet people from six continents and more than 150 countries, including Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and South Korea.

Dear Family,  
Tomorrow, August 15th, the Feast of the Assumpon of the Blessed Virgin Mary is NOT a holy day of obligation.  Nevertheless, it is a special me to honor Mary.  She was assumed into heaven because she had been preserved from original sin.  That’s what we celebrate on December 8th with the feast of the Immaculate Conception.  

I don’t know how many years it took – and I’m not sure I should admit it, but one day it hit me that the effect of original sin is death of the body.  From the fifth century the Church celebrated the “dormition” of Mary, her “falling asleep.”  That’s why we celebrate her Assumption, precisely because her physical body wasn’t subject to the effects of original sin, the corrupon of her physical body through death of that body. 

Dear Family,
As usual, I’m writing this about a week before you read it, so it’s always an adventure to see how the week will turn out. You hope for good things and you pray for them. Then there are the tragedies that bring sadness and emptiness, and we run out of words.

I think it was on 60 Minutes last Sunday that I saw an interview with a man who had been falsely imprisoned for many years. The interviewer asked him something about how he was reacting to be free. His answer was that he simply was grateful for each day. That’s how he was taking it all in, day by day. On top of that he was not angry because it was a waste of energy. I can’t help but wonder what my reaction would be in his situation.