Our Ministries
2 Oct

Anniversary of the Dedication of the Church

Happy Feast of St. Francis!

All week long, as I joined you on Zoom meetings, many of you are remembering that this weekend would have been our Parish Festival! Knowing that we won’t be eating delicious barbecue chicken, drinking wine margaritas, watching the kids at the petting zoo or riding ponies or getting their faces painted, having conversations with our favorite people “across Mass lines,” praying and singing together at Mass, spending lots of money, etc.—what will we do?

Perhaps a “year off” from all of the above is good for us! We get time to re-imagine what our festival might become. Perhaps we can spend the time at home with our families creating our own festival. The fun, the conversations, the working together, the sharing of the Spirit of St. Francis can all still happen. I challenge you to create something in your family to celebrate the feast day and then share it with us in pictures!

Personally, I am going to sit in a variety of places at St. Francis and contemplate the beauty of what God has created for us at St. Francis. I will sit in gratitude. St. Francis is the patron saint of ecology, the care of God’s creation. Yes, nature and our environment—the physical creation, as well as the nature of our Community Spirit—the people who make up our parish family, who offer their gifts and talents for the good of all, those who participate in God’s act of continuous creation. God isn’t finished with us yet!

We, the people at SFA, have a wonderful opportunity to re-imagine what we will be like when we are together in force, physically present to each other. We have stories to tell about how God is changing us, molding us to be something we haven’t imagined yet.  St. Francis turned his life around. He turned his affluent lifestyle into service of others. He embraced lepers, visited a Sultan and recognized the humanity of each person and experienced a new brotherhood, and tamed a wolf and brought peace to a village. He believed in the formation of a community where Jesus Christ was the center of their lives.

What would St. Francis say to us at this parish bearing his name? What prophetic calls would he issue to us? How would he describe our being together? Remember that St. Francis heard God ask him to rebuild His Church. Bricks and mortar! And life and spirit! And individuals and community! And peace and justice!

St. Francis, pray for us! Rebuild, re-form us, our community, our world, and our universe! Praised be all of God’s creation! May we prosper and grow, and always be grateful!

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy
O Divine Master, grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled as to console
To be understood, as to understand
To be loved, as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
And it’s in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it’s in dying that we are born to Eternal Life
Amen

Welcome to St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church