Well, it looks like we are in the busy season once again. Between our school visits, nursing home and hospital visits, and various meetings we are firing at all cylinders now. Our first potluck movie night happened last Thursday, featuring an inspiring story of St. Therese the Little Flower and some wonderful home cooked goodies. There will be other opportunities to gather, including our next potluck movie night on November 2nd. I also hope to have something special during the Advent Season this year on Thursday
evenings, but the details we will leave till later. Sometimes people ask me: “Father, why don’t we offer more opportunities for our people to grow in their faith?” This is indeed a very important request, and I take it quite seriously. There are many programs that we can offer to help our community grow in our knowledge and love of God. Some ideas include: bible study program, a walk through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, lectures on prayer and spirituality, devotional opportunities, and more. There is one program that I am very excited to bring to our parish soon; It is called “Be a man” and focuses on ministry to men who want to understand the unique role and spirituality for men in our community. I’d love to hear feedback from all of you about what you would be interested in. In the meantime, I would like to propose one sure way of growing in your faith that is already available at our parish, and that is weekday Mass. The reason why I think that going to a daily Mass is of great benefit is that it gives us so much for so little, or to put it more plainly, you get “great bang for the buck”. Here is what we get from weekday Mass: * An experience of silence and quiet. Unlike the Sunday Mass when things seem quite busy and loud, weekday Mass is very quiet and meditative. It gives that experience of slowing down and just being silent. We need silence and quiet in our lives, these are important prerequisites to meditation. Weekday Mass offers that environment. * Scripture and teaching. Every Mass includes beautiful Scriptural readings along with a short homily that focuses on one aspect of our life of faith. By going to weekday Mass we not only continue to immerse ourselves in the Word of God, but we also receive ongoing teaching and direction based on Sacred Scripture.
* Being in the presence of saints and angels. We believe that at every Mass we are actually uniting ourselves with those who dwell in God’s presence in their ongoing act of love and worship of God. It’s awesome to know that we are not alone on this earth, and also that we are already preparing ourselves for heaven.
* Experiencing Jesus. The aim of all prayer is to have an experience of God, and there is no more powerful and intimate way to experience the closeness with Jesus than to receive Him in Holy Communion.
These are just some reasons why I think that daily Mass is the best program for growing in faith that we can offer in our parish. We will still offer other ways to grow in our faith, but before you do anything else please consider taking advantage of our weekday Masses!
Fr. Kuzma