2000 Marietta (S.E. 25th) Avenue ~ Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316

(954) 524-9344 ~ Fax : (954) 524-9347

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February 21, 2016

fetscherSecond Sunday of Lent
Dear Family,
Well, its Tuesday the 16th as I write. We just had the storm that uprooted one of our tabebuia argentas. Leo the tree man is coming and today - Sunday the 21st -you’ll see if he had any success. I’m hopeful because he planted our 18 Geiger trees and they all came through.

What a week! We started Lent with our parish retreat. Father Tom Boyer was surely a gift of the Holy Spirit. He’s been “retired” for more than three years and spends time between Naples where is sister and brother-in-law live, and Oklahoma City, his home diocese. He’s been giving missions to both priests and people and is enjoying his ministry a lot.

I loved his comment on his retirement as a pastor. “No more loans, locks, lights, and leaks to contend with.” This last week I dealt with three out of four of those L’s and you know what? He sure hit the nail on the head. I will say, however, that administrative retirement is noton my immediate horizon because I fear succumbing to the status of ‘patate de sofa.’

Some of you asked me if you can find Father Tom’swritings. Just search Father Tom Boyer.org. There you will find a little treasure of things he has written including, lo and behold, at the top of the list the homily he gave here last Sunday.  I’m trying to persuade him to publish his treatment of the seven deadly sins, or the seven ‘issues’ as, with tongue in cheek, he so euphemistically named them. More than one person remarked how well he related those sins to the situations in the world as well as our lives.

If you didn’t make the parish retreat, I’m really sorry because you missed a gift. Why is it sometimes we can’t be bothered to even pull on the ribbon around the gift box? I hope we will have Father Tom back again in the future.

Speaking of opening the gift box, you’ll find in enclosed in this week’s bulletin two honor rolls. One is for the Parish Family Kitchen and the other is for our 2016 ABCD appeal. At the risk of beating the metaphors to death, I wanted to think about people’s responses as one form of ‘opening the gift box.’ After five years now, you know that I think someone’s willingness to respond and to be accountable is at the heart of what it means to be part of community and part of the Body of Christ.

Whether you can contribute money is not the first issue. Of course, we want and need those contributions. But it begins with a willingness to stand with others.We are here for each other because we’re not going to make it to heaven on our own. If we could then community life wouldn’t be necessary.

In the case of the kitchen list, these are folk who took the time to say yes and make a contribution, or said “I can’t afford it right now, but go for it with my prayers,” or some few folks who said “I don’t think we need it.” In the latter category it was 5 out of 95.
The same is true of our ABCD. Once again, because of your generosity we made our goal. As I write, so far you have pledged  $104,598.00. Once we make our goal ($96,266), the parish can use any overage to strengthen our own outreach efforts.

Look at those lists. I hope you see yourself there, but more importantly thank the Lord for those folks who help us know and see Jesus better. Whether they are sunbirds, snowbirds, peacocks or emus (yes, even the emus) they are the Saint Sebastian Aviary.
Jesus was also very kind in sending us Father Bill Mason, OMI and Father Gary Wiesmann who, with Father Tom, helped while I was doing a little physical repair work. Thanks to them for their ministry and to you for your prayers.
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Saturday 5 pm
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Sunday 8:30 & 11 am
Weekdays 8:30 am
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SAINT SEBASTIAN CHURCH

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2000 Marietta (S.E. 25th) Avenue ~ Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316
Parish Office : (954) 524-9344 ~Fax : (954) 524-9347
E-Mail : info@stsebastianfl.org 


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