From the corner office for Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022

From the Corner Office is Father Mike's weekly bulletin column.

“Duality.” Use this word at work or with friends and they might just think that you are reading your philosophy books again from high school or college. Use the word among other faithful, and it is my hope that they’ll know that you are talking about; the challenge of the worldly and the heavenly.

The statement from Jesus is simple, “…love your enemies…” We all have heard the line, kill them with kindness, and I urge all of us to do so! Let’s have more mass killings…. With kindness! David is at the head of Saul, being encouraged to run the spear through, but David comments that Saul is the anointed one of God. That would only be the easy way out, David must have thought… St. Paul talks of the earthly and the heavenly, and that we are called to bear the image of the heavenly one – Christ! Jesus then continues to speak of acting to do what we may say is the opposite of the worldly. Love your enemies, turn the other cheek, don’t judge, and all the other actions that would go against what the worldly would say to do… We need to be heavenly – to do what Jesus is calling us to do on the heavenly realm. All goals, which we may say are impossible, but the saints have and continue to show us that it is not impossible to live a life on the heavenly level. May we all continue to work towards our own “Sainthood”!

Fr. Mike

75th Anniversary thoughts:

The 75th Anniversary Year events were all brought into the conversation, with the mention of the Pastor Installation on Tuesday evening at the 6:45pm Mass with Bishop Malesic being one of the “final events”. It was quickly added that we really need to continue into the spring and summer for more fun events. I whole-heartedly AGREE! The coming together for the various anniversary events is healthy and helpful to help bring us together as a family of faith. People have asked about a reception or something after the Installation, and it is being planned as part of the Parish Picnic this summer. Given the limitations of the virus and weather, we can hold off until we can be outside and have more fun! The hope is to have more outside Masses, more gatherings, and the Homecoming Weekend to bring back those who have moved out of the area. We have a great parish, a great school community, and a nice family of faith, as St. Thomas More Parish.

Parish News:

The continual goal is to get more information out to you as soon as possible. Being that we have announcements, online listing, and (even) bulletin articles, I want to do everything possible to get the (most often…) important information out to you. The next few weeks will include discussion about the Synod gathering, serious talk about the financial needs of the parish as to new programs which will be necessary, and the overall news in the parish. This week we have the Catholic Charities drive being kicked-off, and new RED STM School donation envelopes which you’ll see at the doors. Like the GREEN STM Maintenance envelopes, the donations in these two envelopes will go directly to the school and parish maintenance programs. We’ll be talking more about the future of the parish and school, but we can’t neglect the rising costs to maintain the important ministries of the parish and school. The Parish News column may not be every week, but my goal is to be more transparent and direct on the important news of the parish. Thanks for reading…