I hope your Thanksgiving went well, you enjoyed your meal and time with family and friends was a blessing. We need those reminders of our blessings since we seem to focus more on the negatives in our lives than what is a true grace for us. Also a reminder for St. Casimir parish council members, we have a meeting on the 30th. Looking ahead I am asking for prayers for the First Confession retreat for our second graders happening on Dec. 2nd.
Next Sunday is Advent. We conclude the liturgical year with the feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King of the Universe this Sunday. So we begin the new year with Advent and the hope of the Incarnation soon to be upon us. In the New Year people often make resolutions, to make changes in their lives. I offer you a few thoughts: Officially join the parish. Many who grew up here in the parish still need as adults to join the parish in your own name. Make the parish your official spiritual home. If you are registered here at the parish consider your contact information, is it up to date? Does the parish have your email as a way of reaching out or getting back to you? Please do not assume the office knows you have gotten rid of the land line, for example.
Striving for holiness is an all year around activity. I offer you the following summary from Deacon David Nowicki’s term paper. (As taken from the 2022-23 annual report from the Pontifical North American College.) Deacon Nowicki will be ordained a priest for our diocese this coming June. “The Lay vocation. One of the points of discussion in the Church today is determining a precise definition of the lay vocation–one that doesn’t resort to a via negativa that would define it as ‘not the priesthood’ or ‘not consecrated life.’ This lack of a definition presents a difficulty in living the lay vocation, since the laity live in the world but are not of the world. Two temptations can occur: first, the cares of the world overwhelm the layperson, rendering a spiritual life seemingly impossible; second, the vocation to holiness excludes any interaction with the world, though this is inherently inimical to Christian holiness.
These temptations can be seen in less extreme cases as well, such as those whose work in the Church becomes either, on the one hand, a frenetic activism or, on the other hand, an overly spiritual endeavor devoid of any engagement with the world. For the lay vocation, one’s spiritual life provides what one needs to go into the world and bring about Christ’s work of redemption. More importantly, growth in union with Christ in the lay vocation makes the division between ‘church life’ (prayer, Sacraments, evangelization, etc.) and ‘real life’ (family, work, etc.) less distinct, since they are not two parallel and separate trajectories, but rather two complimentary elements of the same lay vocation.”
Perhaps in the new liturgical year you can consider how you are growing in holiness, closer to God and witnessing His Kingdom out in the world.