Dear Parishioners,
By
the time you read this message, I will be on vacation at the Jersey shore.
Being
raised in Wildwood-by-the-Sea, NJ, I grew up loving the beach and
boardwalk. I still like to soak in the sun when I am able, although I get
continual warnings from my dermatologist to “be sure to use your
sun-block!” Sometimes, I spend time at the shore with
mom. I also like to join friends for dinner and go to the beach with them as my mom no longer is able to do so. So far the weather has cooperated but there is also a prediction of the possibility of intermittent thunderstorms. Oh well!
As
a former high school teacher, I told my students hundreds of times
that there is no vacation from God—especially during their summer and
holiday breaks. Now I find myself on a brief summer vacation
while trying to maintain some semblance of a prayer life. I inevitably pack a small “Mass kit” which
enables me to offer Mass no matter where I am. Mass can then be
celebrated privately in mom's condo, someone's home or in a hotel room on a daily basis. Thankfully, it is so convenient for my mom (and me) that her
son is a priest!
Maybe
I’m strange, but if I were not a priest, Mass would be an important
consideration for me as part of my vacation. I would want to travel where
God was not something of an afterthought—just one activity among many. There are various apps that you can download
on your phone these days, as well as the web site masstimes.org enabling the
traveler to find a Catholic Mass while on vacation. The excuses for not knowing where and when a
Mass can be found are becoming more bogus.
Years
ago, the summer Mass schedule in Wildwood was unbelievable. Mass was celebrated almost every hour in St. Ann Church and alternately every half hour in the Wildwood Catholic High School
gym and auditorium. There were somewhere
around twenty to twenty-five Masses each weekend. If I included the Masses in Wildwood Crest
(Assumption Church) the number would be well over thirty each week. The total today in all three locations is less than ten
(including one in Spanish). Do you see
any pattern here?
I
walked the boardwalk last night, as I frequently do. The humidity was bad but the ocean breeze helps a little. I love to observe the many people visiting
the shore resorts, although I am not always edified by their language or behavior.
When
St. Paul came to Corinth, it was a notorious sea port filled with vice.
When he went to Rome, he had to face the immorality and corruption within the
Roman Empire. All the cities he visited had their own particular problems
and degrees of sinful behavior. To the people of Ephesus, he wrote the
following:
So be
imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and
handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant
aroma. Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among
you, as is fitting among holy ones, no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk,
which is out of place, but instead, thanksgiving. Be sure of this, that no
immoral or impure or greedy person, that is, an idolater, has any inheritance
in the kingdom of Christ and of God. (Eph. 5: 1-5)
I hope and pray that we
all desire to have some inheritance in the Kingdom of God. This means
that we all must strive continually to conform our lives to the teaching of the
Sacred Scriptures—even while on vacation.
There is never really a vacation from God!
Fr. Ed
Namiotka
Pastor
No comments:
Post a Comment