October 2, 2016

Last weekend (September 24-25), the Parishioner Appreciation was enjoyable, pleasant and successful. My appreciation to all of you who went to the Parish Hall after some of the Masses or visited after the evening Mass on Sunday in front of the Church. Worshiping the Lord is our most important blessing; being with one another is also a blessing and the spirit of family and friendship that we share here at St Elizabeth Seton is such strength of our Church Parish. I thank the Stewardship Committee and the Seton Sunshine Group for their efforts in planning and in hosting the gathering after all the Masses. May the Lord continue to bless our Parish Family with faith, fellowship and openness and willingness to make stewardship a way of life for us in all that we do.

For the last few weekends we have read from the First Letter of St. Paul to Timothy. This weekend and for the coming few weekends, our second reading will be from the Second Letter of Paul to his protege Timothy. One of the reasons for Paul to write these two letters was to encourage St. Timothy who was Bishop of Ephesus. Timothy was a young man and he was having some difficulties in leading the community at Ephesus. St. Paul had mentored and guided him and nurtured his faith in Jesus Christ. In our reading today, Paul reminds Timothy that when he was ordained a Bishop, he was given the gift of the Spirit of God to provide him with the graces needed for him to fulfill his ministry as a Bishop and as a leader of the community. Paul’s words were a source of courage and of hope for Timothy and he was able to lead the Christians at Ephesus in a competent and effective way. “Beloved, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:6-7)

As you know from my four years with you, I have great admiration and personal affection for the Letters of St. Paul. Among the memorable words of that great Apostle are the words he wrote to Timothy. Pray, meditate, apply to yourself and your life situation these words: “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.” In all of our lives we face obstacles, problems and struggles that can seem overwhelming to us. With our faith in Jesus Christ and his Spirit, we are not alone! In the Sacraments of the Church, especially in our Baptism and in our Confirmation and in our vocations, we have a power greater than our own and we have a source of strength that enables us to face, to accept and to overcome all that we encounter. God’s Spirit empowers us to care for and to live in peace with one another in the community of believers and to be faithful to the Lord in our personal temptations and spiritual battles with sin, evil and disappointment. St. Paul’s words to Timothy should become part of our personal understanding of our relationship with the Lord and daily help us to live in the power of the Spirit so that we can indeed love the Lord and love one another as we overcome those evil tendencies that we all have within ourselves. As Paul taught Timothy, we are well provided for by the will of the Lord to be faithful, to be obedient and to live our vocation as disciples of the Lord within our families, in the fellowship of the Church and in our community.

This Tuesday, October 4, Bishop Douglas Deshotel will meet with all the Priests of the Diocese of Lafayette at the Immaculata Center for the first time since he was appointed our new Bishop several months ago. Please keep the Bishop and all the Priests in your prayers that the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the great merciful, gentle and humble High Priest, will fill the heart of our Bishop and the hearts of all our Priests.

Our Psalm for Mass this weekend is Psalm 95! One of the verses describes so well what we do as we come to Mass in our worship, in our praise and in our giving the Lord the glory that he so greatly deserves. “Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord who made us. For he is our God, and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.” (Psalm 95:6-7) With grateful, hopeful, sincere, contrite and humble hearts we come to the Lord at Mass knowing that He is our Creator, our Savior, our Shepherd and our Father. When we come to the Lord with praise, he will always provide for us and he will bless us with his redeeming grace.

SHALOM!

Fr. Gary

Homework for the week of October 2 – October 8
Psalms 1-7