I realize it’s been quite some time since I last wrote you a letter. Over Thanksgiving my mom was taken to the hospital because she was having trouble breathing. It was then that my brother; sisters and myself found out that mom had lung cancer. She had known for several months but did not want us to worry about her. She had decided not to take any aggressive treatment. Since than she has been at home with 24-hour care and Hospice visits a couple of times a week. Some of you may have met or seen my mom at the 11:30 Sunday mass as she used to attend when I was preaching. Even though she is down to about 75 pounds, she is in no pain and is doing as well as can be expected. Please continue to pray for her and for our family.

Because of what’s happening with mom, I have become more acutely aware of how many parishioners and their relatives are in similar circumstances. I think of the loved ones who have died recently; those preparing for a death, and for those who are their caregivers. I really don’t know how people survive without the love, the care and the prayers of a shared faith community.

Thank you and God’s continued blessings to you.

Monday-February 20th
Readings: Jas 3:13-18 - Mk 9:14-29

Tuesday-February 21st
Readings: Jas 4:1-10 - Mk 9:30-37

Wednesday-February 22nd
Readings: 1 Pt 5:1-4 - Mt 16:13-19

Thursday-February 23rd
Readings: Jas 5:1-6 - Mk 9:41-50

Friday-February 24th
Readings: Jas 5:9-12 - Mk 10:1-12

Saturday-February 25th
Readings: Jas 5:13-20 - Mk 10:13-16

Please bring an item (entrée, appetizer, or dessert) to share with 6 people and a toy for the children to play with.

Babysitters will be available to help with child care.

It’s been a long time, I’m told, since our parish has had a mission. Well, we have one planned for March 13-15 with two representatives of Catholic Relief Services, Joseph Hastings from Seattle and Thomas Awiapo from Uganda. Their sharing on the scriptures and our everyday lives will definitely help us enter into the Lenten season. They will speak at the Masses the weekend before, so you’ll have an opportunity to meet them. The actual parish mission Monday through Wednesday will consist of presentations after the 8:30 am Mass and evening presentations at 7:30 pm in the church. (They will also be speaking to the confirmation classes and the students at St. Robert’s School, as well as at some of the high schools in the area.) Please put the dates on your calendar, so that you have an opportunity to be inspired by these two good men!

Also, we’re looking for hospitality – a place to stay for Thomas – preferably nearby, from Saturday evening through Wednesday evening. If someone has a mother-in-law apartment or similar arrangement to offer for those nights, please contact me at 589-2800.

The Grownups’ Annual Soup Supper and General Meeting will be held in Hennessy Hall on Wednesday, March 8th at 6 p.m. The meeting will follow the supper. We will have a guest speaker.

St. Vincent de Paul is a Catholic Lay Organization and currently have 20 volunteers who visit those in need, and 10 contributing volunteers who help out during the holidays by distributing food and gifts to needy families. We average 2 calls per day for help; food being the greatest need. And some days we may get calls for assistance ranging from help with food, clothing, furniture, rent or utilities.

With Easter approaching, we will have the wonderful assistance again of our parish teenagers who will assemble Easter baskets to be given to our local St. Vincent de Paul families.

Spiritual Reading will be available at St. Robert’s after the Masses on Sundays. Please take a few minutes either before or after Mass and check out a book or two that interest you. You may keep the books until you have them read. We have some books on the Library cart but we have many more in the Library/Reconciliation room.

Don't miss attending this year's Dinner Dance.
Seating lis limited.

The readings this weekend are fascinating. Imagine belonging to a faith community which is solidly based in tradition and hearing a prophet proclaim, “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see I am doing something new!” You’ve got to be joking, the people must have thought. Our whole faith is remembering the events of the past – the promises to Abraham, the giving of the commandments to Moses, the Passover and first exodus from slavery in Egypt. What do you mean, that the Lord is doing something new??? The author of this section of Isaiah is writing towards the end of the Babylonian exile and this time, God’s wonders will be even greater than the first exodus.

The gospel passage is a great story of persistent faith. The four friends of the paralytic are bound, bet and determined to get him into see Jesus so that Jesus can heal him. Nothing will stop them, not even the seeming impossibility of making their way inside a house which is so crowded that there isn’t any room. No problem; they go up on the roof, remove the thatch and lower the man on his stretcher. Seeing their faith, Jesus says to him, “My child, your sins are forgiven.” What a great example of the importance of community! And don’t we all have times when we come to Mass reluctantly – perhaps feeling tired or bored - and we’re buoyed up by the singing and the readings and the homily? Jesus responds to the loving concern these four men have for their friend. We know almost nothing about the paralytic himself. The scribes are scandalized that Jesus is blaspheming, for only God can forgive sins. Jesus can tell what they are thinking, so he challenges them, relating the forgiveness of sins with the healing of the man. (It was customary, you’ll recall, to equate illness with evil, so it was merely a question of whether the man was the sinner or his parents. Jesus doesn’t believe that, but perhaps he’s meeting them where they are in this instance.) Once Jesus commands him to get up, pick up his stretcher and go home, he does exactly that and walks out in front of everyone. The people praise God saying, “We’ve never seen anything like this.” Something new again!

Does our image of God allow God to do something new in us? In a family member we worry about? In our broken world? Jesus authors life everywhere he goes in every person who is open to being touched by him either physically or through his words. His Spirit continues to bring forth life if only we’ll let ourselves be open to newness, to the unexpected. May we pray for that grace for ourselves and for each other. Peace, S. Sheral