I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Since I was a child, it has been one of my favorite holidays. Oh that turkey mom would masterfully cook!

In time, as she aged, Thanksgiving Dinner started to get later and later. She was beginning to slow down, and one year, exhausted to the core, she served the meal at 9PM. That was the year that I declared that Mom had cooked her last Thanksgiving turkey; it was now time to pass the torch and let somebody cook for her. She ended up passing the torch to me, which wasn’t exactly my plan… And so, thinking fast, my ‘cooking’ consisted of an invitation to mom to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, at a rambling wooden country inn not far from where Norman Rockwell lived and painted. Americana at its best. And since then, my family has been enjoying Thanksgiving in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, where once again last week I found myself with those I love most doing what I love so much: spending time with my family (and eating). Hope yours was as pleasant, too! Bravo to all those turkey-cooking moms!

Now, this weekend, we put aside the turkey leftovers and begin the period of waiting called Advent. The Church asks us to slow down, and enter into a period of delicious waiting… waiting for the incredible event which is the commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ. A time to take spiritual stock of our lives and to present a clean slate to God with a promise to do better next year by loving God and our neighbors more deeply, by putting aside past sins and entering into the spirit of conversion.

In the first reading, Isaiah pens what are among the most profound words of all scripture: You (God) are the potter, and we are the clay. Oh, how we love to be in control! How we just love to be the potter! Who needs God as long as I have me, myself, and I seems so common. Or its modern variant: who needs God as long as I have my stuff to divert my attention from my salvation?

Advent reminds us to continue the theme of Thanksgiving all the way to Christmas and beyond, by emphasizing that we await the giver of all good gifts, Jesus Christ, who has re-formed us into what we are called to be: Thankful and holy children of God, but fragile as clay: let us never forget how much we need him! Drop a clay pot, and it will break into a thousand pieces. It is destroyed. So are our souls if we beat them up and abuse them with sin. Advent reminds us of just how fragile we really are and how badly in need of repentance we are for our sins and the world’s terrible sins, especially against the dignity of human life: war, abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia, crime, starvation, and political or religious injustice, and how incredibly loving God is to us, to send his only son into the world, to take on our brokenness and raise it to the dignity of God himself through the Redemption of the Cross. Our pride tells us to deny that we are fragile, but I paraphrase St. Paul, who reminded us that only when we are weak are we truly strong, for then the power of the living Christ shines through. Allow yourself to be fragile and repentant this Advent, ask for God’s strength and forgiveness, acknowledge your sins, especially by making a good sacramental confession, and bask in God’s power to save, while we await the coming of the Christ-child.

I feel sorry for Roman Catholics who make their living in the financial professions, especially if they are also clergy, like our deacons. No, I’m not talking about the economy, I’m talking about the calendars they have to keep track of. First, there’s the ‘regular’ calendar, January 1st through December 31st. Then there’s the ‘fiscal’ calendar, July 1st through June 30th (I think…). I suppose there’s a reason for starting the year when it’s half-over for the rest of us, but why is a mystery to me. Finally, there’s the liturgical calendar, which begins on the first Sunday of Advent, in just one week hence.

But, before we can start a new year of any variety, we must first end the current one (and I’ll bet the end of 2008 is a really welcome idea for many of us!!!). This we are doing this week, at least liturgically speaking. We celebrate the 34th and last Sunday of our liturgical year, also known as ‘The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King.’ This is, I feel, a fitting way to finish: by remembering that Jesus Christ is first and last, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end… of everything.

Our readings today cause us to focus on the one thing that really matters: our destiny. While it may be a surprise to many who have not been given the gift of faith, we have been, as St. Augustine reminds us, created by God for the purpose of spending eternity with the God who loves us so dearly that he sacrificed his Son for us. Following the example of Jesus, we as Catholics can see that our earthly life is a temporary, finite, all-too-quickly-ending testing ground of charity: we are expected to use the talents God has given us to further God’s kingdom on earth by doing good works, that is, worrying less about ’stuff’ and more about our immortal souls. In other words, this life is NOT ‘all there is,’ and we will be judged by God as to how well we kept focused on God as the central Being of our existence (first and last!) and how well we proved it by the things we did and said on this side of the Pearly Gates.

The radio and TV economists are worried about the falling stock market. Retailers are worried about the prospect of a poor ‘holiday’ (gosh I hate that word!!!) season, and the banks are worried about losing their assets if they loan them out. Speaking as someone trying to keep our expenses down, I can say I’m worried about these things too: but while we’re worried about all this ‘earthly’ stuff, an old saying comes to mind: ‘Nobody will remember a thing about today a hundred years from now.’ In other words, what seems so incredibly important to us now will be a long gone memory tomorrow. Things pass and go in cycles. But, if we focus too much on mammon, we’ll forget that one and only one thing matters: our salvation. If we lose our souls over earthly stuff, we’ve made a very, very bad deal… with the devil. So, of course, be prudent with your financial decisions. These are tough times. But never forget that Jesus Christ, our King and our God, came to earth as a human being and sacrificed himself for our sakes to help us to recognize our real treasure. Because of Christ, we are royalty: and you can take that to the bank!

Here’s a video about he desire to see as God sees.

Based on the movie, “Billy: The Early Years of Billy Graham.”

Based on the second Narnia Chronicles movie, “Prince Caspian.”

As you may remember, several weeks ago I published the financial reports for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008. This week, I am required to publish the financial report of the first quarter (18k pdf file) of the current fiscal year, that is July 1st through September 30th. Rather than provide a separate cover letter as I did the last time, my comments are being included in this column.

First, and most importantly, I am very grateful that many of you read my cover letter and listened to my pulpit comments carefully.

As you may remember, I emphasized that we had the loss of some $140,000 income per year with the termination of the lease that the City of Bridgeport had with us for our school building. Ouch.

As you know, over the last several years, our beautiful church has been in need of several expensive repairs and we can thank the dear Lord that that lease was providing the buffer to keep us in repair and solvent.

Further, I noted that our weekly collection falls short some $1200 to $1500 per week, (or some $60,000 per year) over our expenses which have been kept as low as possible already.

We do what we can to save, like utilizing the smaller and less-expensively heated and air conditioned lower church for a significant part of the year, and our staff is volunteer and part-time (and in most cases our part-time employees also volunteer extra time to help keep us afloat, God bless you!).

Nevertheless, and realizing that our economy stinks right now (a technical term I learned in college economics…) I asked you to consider in your charity helping to make up the shortfall by us all doing ‘just a little bit.’

And last week you did. To my delight (and the delight of those we owe money to…) our collection was some $500 greater that it has usually been. I pray that this is not a ‘bump,’ but rather, that you have taken my words to heart and have in your love for St. Patrick’s decided to do ‘just a little bit more.’

We are all very grateful

As you will see if you look at the comparison reports that have been inserted into the bulletin, our financial situation, so dependent on the income from the school, has continued to deteriorate.

We really do have only two options, as I’ve noted before, to increase income and to decrease expenditures. To that end, and knowing what a soft economy we have, I am continuing to work very aggressively to affect the sale of the school building. I absolutely will keep you all ‘in the loop.’ Because of the loss of that income, we have steadily had to dip into our meagre cash savings to meet operating expenses, and last week we reached a ‘milestone’ of sorts: our savings dipped below $100,000. Obviously, that’s a very serious development.

We have a wonderful Finance Council here, whose help has been invaluable. Further, several parishioners have approached me with really fine fund-raising ideas. But most importantly, we need the active participation of each and every one of you.

Our parish will survive and thrive only if everyone gets involved.

So, please, come to Mass, contribute time and treasure as your means allow, and bring a friend or two who may not be participating regularly at Mass. We want them back as friends, as family, and as participants in doing God’s work here in Bridgeport. God bless you!

About the Financial Report

The following file -Click here to download (18k pdf file) - contains eight pages with the following six financial reports:

• STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION - As of 9/30/2008
• COMPARATIVE STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL POSITION - 9/30/2008 vs. 9/30/2007
• STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES - For 7/1/2008 through 9/30/2008
• COMPARATIVE STATEMENTS OF ACTIVITIES - For 7/1/2008 through 9/30/2008 vs. 7/1/2007 through 9/30/2007
• STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES - ACTUAL VERSUS BUDGET - For 7/1/2008 through 9/30/2008
• STATEMENT OF FUNCTIONAL EXPENSES BY NATURAL CLASSIFICATION - For 7/1/2008 through 9/30/2008

A young lady approached Marcia last week and asked to be trained as an altar girl. I am grateful that she has come forward. Very grateful. And her request reminded me that I need to ‘put out the call’ for a new group of young ladies and gentlemen to be trained as altar servers. I have asked Fr. Ridley, our Parochial Vicar, to head this up and to do the actual training. We need to bolster our ranks of servers, because we need more depth and also, as our older servers ‘graduate’ and move on, we need to replace them. Any young person in the 4th grade on up is welcome.

We are also in need of lectors (readers) at Mass. I don’t know what it is about reading out loud in public, but lots of people get this certain horrified look on their faces when approached and asked to read. For many, getting up and speaking in public is hugely difficult. I respect that, but if none of us ever challenged ourselves, how can we expect to grow? Lectoring is a privilege and a ministry; if you are even mildly considering it, please call the rectory. Just give it a try! Believe it or not, I was for most of my younger years almost pathologically shy. It’s strange how God works: shy and introverted I was, but I also liked music, and wanted to play bass guitar. I did this for years in various bands, and getting up there in front of people playing bass gave me confidence to preach and proclaim God’s word. In other words, I got used to being up in front of people with practice over time. I didn’t say ‘I can’t do that!’ Instead I said, ‘Let’s at least give it a try.’ You can, too. God puts us into situations where we may grow little by little, usually enjoying ourselves along the way. Maybe he’s asking you to grow, too?

Several people have voiced concerns about some developments. A few have pointed out that they’d like to light candles but ‘there are none.’ One hinted that it might be a cost-cutting measure. Let me assure you that the temporary moratorium on candles is not financially motivated. It is safety motivated. Perhaps you’ve noticed that the candles come in blue plastic (which means flammable) containers. Now, I don’t know what rocket scientist thought that it was a good idea to try to contain fire inside a flammable cup, but several of those blue containers have caught fire in the few months I’ve been here. I asked our sexton to order glass containers for the candles, and as soon as they come in, we’ll be back to normal.

And several have asked about the bulletins. People are used to picking their bulletins up on the way into Mass. That’s fine, but I’ve also noticed (and from the altar we can see everything!) that lots of people are using the bulletins as ready reading material during Mass. That’s not courteous, of course. Would you bring a newspaper to the dinner table if you were invited to someone’s house? Of course not! And even more important, the homily is NOT a time to zone out: it is time to listen to God’s Word explained. I experimented with asking the ushers to hand the bulletins out after Mass, but that hasn’t worked out particularly well, either. (One person, seeing no bulletins on the table on his way in, asked if I was ‘too cheap’ to provide them) So please, take a bulletin, but please, don’t read it during the Mass. Thanks.

Here’s a video about the profound effect our choices have on our lives and those of others.

Great video that proclaims when you put yourself in God’s hands, you are indeed “in better hands.”

Here’s a lively and joyful song performed by Michael W. Smith, et al.