January to February
As we enter into this weekend, we enter into the end of January run: Annual Paulist Appeal, feast of St. Paul the Apostle, Week of Christian Unity and Catholic Schools week - a time of celebration.
The Annual Paulist Appeal is the time to remember parish vision since October 1903. The Paulist Fathers have helped move Old St. Mary's (literally and figuratively) to keep moving to meet the needs of the day by helping people see the Gospel with more clarity. Sometimes that has been comforting, sometimes challenging, always with the intent to say, "here is Christ."
We get that gumption from St. Paul the Apostle, the audacious prosecutor of Christians who became the most ardent of apostles. We pray for his help in these difficult times to see Christ first and in so doing remake our world led by Jesus.
In the week of Christian Unity, it is a good time to keep praying for common vision and new pathways for Christians to work together. It is also a great week to reflect on what we already share in belief and actions in common. We are always praying for unity, maybe there are things we are doing that are already uniting us.
And Catholic Schools week takes us into all the above. Old St. Mary's looks on its legacy, part of the Oldest Catholic Parish in Chicago, part of Paulist Mission, reflecting on the lives of the saints, seeing how to interact with others. The gift of Catholic Schools is that a solid education is presented in the context of a Church striving to make the love of Jesus paramount, and helping people explore all that means together.
Have a blessed end of January into February run!
Fr. Brad
