Pastor's Message Archives

Pastor's Message April 30, 2000 SAINT FIACRE AND ME Thanks to a gift certificate I received for Possum Run Greenhouse, I now have a statue of St. Fiacre standing in the middle of my flower garden. In case you have never heard of him, let me tell you that St. Fiacre is the patron saint of gardeners. It was only last fall that I was introduced to him. Fiacre was a monk in the seventh century. His green thumb helped him grow medicinal herbs and other vegetables. The people of Brie, France, where he lived, came to Fiacre regularly for healing as well as for food in their hunger. After his death, people who came to his shrine in Brie, often departed in carriages from the Hotel St. Fiacre in Paris. Eventually, the carriages themselves came to be known as fiacres . Thus St. Fiacre is also the patron saint of taxi drivers! As I look out the kitchen window of the rectory, I am happy to see St. Fiacre standing amidst the hyacinths, narcissus, and azaleas. As Fiacre shared the fruits of his gardening with the people who came to him, I hope the flowers of my garden will bring joy and peace to those who see them. By the way, I still have a statue of St. Francis of Assisi that was here when I came to St. Peter’s. I don’t think he minds sharing the garden, although his statue looks somewhat weathered and worn compared with Fiacre. Fr. Herb
April 23, 2000 - Easter Sunday LIGHT AND COLOR Last year someone gave me a beautiful kaleidoscope. It is a brass tube at the end of which are two wheels containing pieces of colored glass. As one looks through the opening at the end opposite the wheels, light reflects into an array of bright colors. As the wheels turn, the pattern is forever changing. I love to watch how light is transformed into color. Just look at our church’s magnificent windows as the sun shines through them! Light has the ability to bring excitement and life to one’s existence. Easter is about light, life, and plenty of color. It should be no surprise that Easter symbols like flowers, eggs, butterflies, roosters, and sunrises are all draped in a profusion of colors. On Holy Saturday night, after lighting the new Easter candle, we sing “Christ our Light!” The one flame is then passed to many candles as the light of new life dares to shine in the darkness. Easter is all about the Lord of Light bringing new life. The light of the Lord is not simply seen in the candle. It is often kaleidoscoped into many-nuanced joys and colors for one’s life. It makes sense, then, to think that a person’s faith in the Lord should not be drab or dull. It shines with a rainbow of bright, vivid colors, energizing all who experience it! Have a happy and colorful Easter! - Fr. Herb April 9, 2000 THE EARLY BIRD There are several birds that love to welcome the morning with (loud) singing in the tree outside my bedroom window. Usually they start their serenade about an hour before dawn. Their melodies often wake me up, but I don’t mind because I still have a little time to sleep before the alarm sounds. Last week, however, when I heard the birds singing, it seemed earlier than usual. Better said, I felt sleepier than usual. So I turned on the light and looked at the clock. It was only a few minutes after midnight! Since I don’t understand how the birds know when the dawn is coming, I am sure that I will never know how they misread the time that particular night. I had to laugh at the mistake those birds made, even though their sound awoke me from a deep sleep. In much the same way we have to learn to laugh at our own mistakes and those of people around us. It seems way too many people take matters far too seriously these days. A little laughter would probably help. Perhaps the best way to look at life is that none of us is perfect. In fact, it’s an imperfect world we live in. Once we accept that, then we can relax a bit and learn to enjoy things for what they are and not be so critical. - Fr. Herb April 2, 2000 WHAT TIME IS IT? A couple of years ago a friend told me that he felt he was too dependent on the clock. Because he didn’t want always to be worrying about time, he decided to stop wearing a watch. Unfortunately, in the following weeks he drove everyone around him crazy by constantly asking what time it was. This weekend as we do our semi-annual change of hours, everyone will be re-setting their clocks, VCR’s, microwaves, radios, and watches. Even the clock governing the church bells has to be reset twice a year. We truly are dependent on time-keeping devices. Yet time is not really within our control. Although young people often think time moves too slowly as they wait for something special to come, most of us find time going way too fast. Days turn into weeks, and we are still trying to do what was intended two or three weeks ago. Time is a gift. Any moment that we have is only ours once. Then it is gone. Cherish each moment and live each moment as the singular event that it is. And be sure that some of the moments are spent thanking God for the time that we have. - Fr. Herb

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