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Lent will be here before we know it. To be honest, I frequently find myself dreading Lent, mainly because it almost always becomes unmanageable for priests. Still, of all people, I know that I am in need of a season of conversion, which essentially is what Lent offers us. Below are some suggestions on how to make your Lent more productive spiritually.

One of the great obstacles to the spiritual life is our ego. Often, if we are not careful, we can allow our ego to give us an inaccurate understanding of who we are. Our egos can distort our sense of our abilities, our importance. People with inflated egos are very difficult to work with or live with.

Six months have flown by and suddenly it is my first Christmas with you as your pastor. You are a remarkable parish, with a generous heart, and a “can do” spirit I greatly admire. I feel fortunate to have landed here among you. My Christmas prayers for you are, first, that you and your family are healthy and spared the many viruses of winter. I also pray for your souls; for your spiritual well being. I humbly ask for your prayers, that I may be a good and loyal pastor to you. A small Christmas poem for your enjoyment ...

Our Secular Franciscans are gathering gloves to give to the homeless, and I promised them that I would help promote that cause. If you would, consider buying a pair of gloves and bringing them with you to Sunday Mass. Apparently, most of the homeless wear two pair of gloves, a light weight glove and heavier glove over that. So any type of glove will be appreciated. Advent is a great season during which we should do small acts of charity.

The plan of God to rescue the world from the tyrant of sin and darkness included perfect timing for Jesus to be born. In the decades before the birth of Jesus, the world adjacent to the Jews was plagued by war and piracy. The Mediterranean Sea was a very unsafe place to travel. Thus the flow of goods and ideas was hampered. Rome was beginning to establish its authority across Europe Africa and the Middle East, but Rome was restrained by civil wars and rebellions against its influence in the East.

Advent is a liturgical season well suited for a personal revival of one’s faith. I’d like to suggest a few ideas for spiritual growth. First, use your Hallow app, or the USCCB website, to read the readings for each day of Advent. Remember that reading scripture is 1.) a good way to encounter Jesus, and 2.) is an occasion for the forgiveness of venial sin.

While the exact beginnings of the season of Advent remain uncertain, it is clear that there were monastic roots. By the late fifth century, monks were fasting for the forty days before Christmas. In time, the spirituality of Advent spread to the larger church. Christians were instructed to pray, fast, and give alms in preparation for the coming of Jesus at the end of the world and in preparation of the Feast of Christmas.

Our parish had a somewhat unique agreement with the Archdiocese regarding our commitment to the building of the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine (via the One Church Many Disciples campaign). We agreed to donate a set amount of $1,100,000 from the $9,000,000 we intended to raise for our facility expansion. everything pledged and donated above the $1.1 million would return to the parish.

If you pay attention to the readings in November, you’ll note that we’re shifting our attention from the demands of discipleship to a reflection on the end of all things. Jesus spoke many times about the end of the world, and how suddenly the end will come.

1. TEN BUCK SUNDAY will occur every month on the Fourth Sunday. We ask everyone 18 and over to donate ten dollars. The money will be used to furnish the Early Childhood Development Center. You will be amazed at the amount of money we can raise through these small gifts.

On November 1, the Church celebrates the Feast of All Saints. We are a church confident that countless souls have persevered in grace, triumphed over sin and death, and now rejoice in the house of the Father, which we call heaven. The saints in heaven know of us and pray for us. However, they are not anxious, because they know of God’s ultimate victory over evil.

This year, I have been reading classic American Western, novels including Lonesome Dove, True Grit, and Shane. The Ox Bow Incident, the last of these on my reading list, deals with the problem of justice on the frontier. In the wake of cattle rustling and a killing, a local community strays into revenge and mob justice.

This last Monday and Tuesday all the priests of the Archdiocese gathered at the Catholic Pastoral Center off NW Expressway for Continuing Education on the topic of Vocations Promotion. We had a refresher on the importance of and ‘best practices’ for helping a young man consider the possibility that God might be calling him to be a priest.

I believe that I have already spoken about how important pilgrimage is to my personal spirituality. I want to write briefly about another theological concept that has shaped me as a believer. I believe that we have two basic choices in life: the choice to live for self alone or the choice to live for God and others. I don’t think we can make the right choice unless we foster an attitude of gratefulness.

The chairs in Ross Hall are in very bad shape. We’ve had them for years, used them for years, and, frankly, they look horrible. Some of them look so bad, no one in their right mind will sit on them. So, we have options: cleaning; recovering; buying new chairs. Cleaning is the least expensive option but it’s too late for many of the chairs;

Often, the story of Lazarus and the rich man becomes an opportunity for preachers to make people feel guilty for having money or possessions. The contrast between Lazarus’ poverty and the rich man’s wealth and comfort is a tempting feature of the story upon which to concentrate. Yet, Lazarus ends up in paradise with Abraham. Abraham is one of the richest men in the Bible, a billionaire by the standards of the day.

This weekend, we hear a rather difficult parable: the corrupt steward who, nonetheless, is praised for his craftiness. One theory concerning the parable is that the steward takes money off the bill of his master’s clients, because his master had overcharged them. There wasn’t much the master could do but acknowledge that the steward was terribly clever.

If you are like me, sometimes confession can be a frustrating experience. I forget what I want to say or I feel that I over explain myself. Below are seven suggestions to make confession a more spiritually fruitful event.

Jesus was very clear in his public teaching regarding the cost of following him. The Christian life is more than attending (most) Sunday Masses and Holy Days. If we live our Christian faith as Christ would have it, we will come into direct conflict with the prevailing values of this world.

I want to do an ad campaign for our parish and I am looking for members of the parish who would agree to be photographed. Because we are a diverse parish, I hope to get a good cross section of the community involved. Basically, we want to show this part of the metro that we have people of every stripe imaginable practicing the Catholic faith here at St. Eugene. Contact the parish office if you would be agreeable to the project and a brief photo shoot.