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September 11, 2020I want to give a shout out to Bob Wheat who celebrated his 92nd birthday on Thursday. Some of the folks who attend daily Mass gathered with me at Bob’s home on Thursday to sing “Happy Birthday” to him. Bob has born in a working-class neighbor of South Baltimore on September 10th, 1927, which I believe makes him our oldest parishioner. I am grateful that Bob has agreed to be the first “victim”, aka star of a new show that the Francis Fraternity is producing.
Bob’s life story will soon appear on our Saint Michael Tybee YouTube channel as the initial episode of our Getting to Know You Show. This will be a series of half hour interviews of our parishioners. Since we have three different options for Mass on the weekend, not all of us know each other. And the fact that many of us are worshipping via livestream until a vaccine is well distributed also challenges our sense of belonging to each other. Growth in faith and belonging to a faith community are intimately connected. Churches should function as spiritual families where members experience friendship, share life, struggles, and hopes and contribute their gifts. Anything that deepens our sense of belonging to each other is going to deepen our faith in God’s love.
What is the Francis Fraternity? It is a group of parishioners whose mission is to build up God’s Kingdom here on Tybee, which of course is the basic mission of all the baptized. But this group specifically focuses on faith formation and evangelization. We will model our gatherings on my experience of the Jesus Caritas Fraternity by each member developing our own program of spiritual exercises and allowing the members of the fraternity to hold us accountable to what we say we want to do in order to draw closer to Christ because you can’t share want you don’t have. And our basic sharing should always be about our love for Jesus.
St. Francis in his day was called to rebuild the Church and that is what the members of the Francis Fraternity want to be about. We do not want to be an exclusive group. Ryan and Tasha Beke, Mike Lynch, Ginny Murphy, Delia Robinson, and Carolyn Williams are founding members. But if you are willing to commit to a specific program of spiritual exercises of your own design, you are more than welcome to join in the mission of the Francis Fraternity. Talk to me or one of the members.
Today is National Grandparents Day. It is celebrated annually on the first Sunday after Labor Day. It was created in 1970 by the late Marian McQuade of West Virginia, and former President Jimmy Carter declared Grandparents Day a national holiday in 1978. The purpose of the day is to honor grandparents, give them an opportunity to show love for their children's children, and help children become aware of the strength, information, and guidance older people can offer. I’ll offer a brief blessing for grandparents at the weekend Masses.
Finally, this is an unprecedented time and we know that our prayer is powerful. Please join me on Sunday at 5pm as I spend a holy hour in adoration before our Eucharistic Lord. God is with us.
Taking the Gospel Home: Prayerfully Read Matthew 18: 21-35
In this Gospel passage, Jesus tells us of the need to forgive our brothers and sisters. It is not easy to forgive. What is this gospel calling you to do or what are you called to change? What or who can lead you to forgive one who has hurt you? Where in this troubled world to you see a need for God’s merciful love and forgiveness? Do you need to experience God’s mercy for you by going to Confession so that you’ll be more ready to forgive and show mercy to others or are you pretty smug in your judgments and hates?
