From the Corner Office for Oct. 30, 2022

From the corner office is Father Mike's weekly bulletin column.

The Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time brings us to Jesus calling us out of our comfort zones. The First Reading from the Book of Wisdom is from a section speaking of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt. The wonder of God’s control over the forces of nature and the endless mercy from God. The letter to the Thessalonians speaks of the “…day of the Lord is at hand.” The time is here for us to stand-up and be counted. The short passage from St. Luke’s gospel tells the story of the tax collector, Zacchaeus. Jesus is entering the town and Zacchaeus climbs the tree for a better view, which begs the question – was Jesus short and not able to be seen, or was Zacchaeus short and not able to see Jesus, interesting to think about… BUT, given Zacchaeus is now in the tree, able to see above the crowd, safe and away from the crowd, and (maybe) even thinking he’s outsmarted the crowd since now he can see – what does Jesus do? He calls Zacchaeus down from the tree, out of his comfort zone, and (even) humbled a bit since he didn’t outsmart Jesus. Question for us all this week: What will it take for us to come down out of the tree, out of our comfort zone, and (yes, even) humble ourselves to grow closer to our God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit?

Fr. Mike

From the Pastor’s Desk:

The change of the seasons will be bringing the change of our focus now as a parish, family of faith, and community. The financial numbers have been presented and the questions have been answered, for those who have been asking to learn more about the workings of the parish. I am glad to see the interest and the growing engagement of the parish. The maintenance projects for the exterior will be moving inside and the “battle of the falling leaves” will continue for a bit more around the campus. We’ll be closing the books on the 2021-22 financials and repairs and move ahead into 2022-23. Thanks to the hard work of the rectory team and the Parish Financial Council, it’s all good!

The next few weeks you will hear about the #WeGiveCatholic campaign held just after Thanksgiving, which is a fundraising event. We are gathering helpful give-away prizes for the day. There also may be some talk about Legacy Giving, which we will be inter-woven with Future Planning and Basic Financial Understandingtalks. The tagline we used back in 2020 was “Building for our Future”, and now will be the time to continue the talks about our future. Despite the craziness of the political campaign season, we are really doing well here at St. Thomas More, so thank you all.