Convinced
Sunday, March 10 ^th
3pm at the Tybee Post
 
A documentary film exploring the question: Why would anybody become Catholic?  There has been great energy around this film among those who have viewed it in our Sunday School for Disciples.  I think it could be a great vehicle for getting the word out that there is no better place to meet the Savior of the World than in our Faith Community.  I’d ask you to invite a friend, a neighbor, a relative to come and view this film with you on Sunday, March 10 ^th at the Tybee Post.  If you have Amazon Prime, you can preview the film on-line.  But I think it is best to view it in community at the Tybee Post where the welcoming sounds of Ryan Beke will be getting us settled as we buy our beer and wine and popcorn.  I will do a brief Q and A afterwards and those who want to join us for an after party at Huc A Poos can be headed that way by 5pm.  I’m a little skeptical but our head cheer leader, Drew Covar, tells me that he expects that we can pack the theatre.
 
Trinity Mass
Sunday, March 31 ^{st
10am at the Tybee Pier}
Saint Michael’s Night Out (SMNO) is a fun way of building a deeper sense of belonging among our parishioners.  I hope you can join us on Monday night, February 25 ^th at Fannies at 6pm. 
 
Since we worship on the weekends at three different Masses, the Pastoral Council thought we might occasionally try to celebrate just one Eucharist on a weekend to create a deeper sense of community as we all worship together at one Mass.  On the Weekend of March 31 ^st there will be just the one “Trinity” Mass at Tybee Pier.  It will be the only Mass on the Island that weekend.  The Pastoral Council will provide coffee and donuts at the end of Mass.  We will gather in the north end of the pavilion where the picnic benches are.  But as at the Easter Sunrise Service, you want to bring your own lawn/beach chairs.  We will stand during some parts of the Eucharist, but we will not be kneeling.  Our Unity Choir will be present.  We won’t be roping off an area and we will want to make sure folks have access to go out to the end of the pier.  And as with our SMNO the hope is that this is a gentle way of Evangelizing.  Beyond creating a stronger bond among ourselves, the following story will give you an idea of what we are hoping to accomplish with a public Mass.
 
There was a Passionist priest who was one of the first foreign priests to settle in Sweden for any length of time.  As missionaries, he and his colleagues experienced in a new way what it felt like to be irrelevant.  Swedish society simply did not understand what they were about.  It wasn’t downright hostility.  It was simply a total lack of interest in what they thought the Catholic Church stood for.  This was coupled, of course, with a suspicion about anything which had to be imported.  The Swedes loved their prosperous society.  What could the Church of Rome offer, or add?  So, “Not today, thank you, don’t call on us, we’ll call on you.”
 
Then one warm Sunday afternoon, the priests arranged Benediction for their tiny flock, and they left the door of the Church open because it was hot.  By the end there were quite a group of Swedes clustered on the porch, watching intently, and some of them were crying.  “What’s the matter?” asked the priest, and they replied, “That’s the most beautiful thing we have ever seen in our lives.”  The music, the candles, the vestments, the reverence, but above all the mystery of the Eucharist had struck home, even in the midst of the unpretentious little church.  The Eucharist is beautiful, and we are so incredibly blessed to draw ever closer to Jesus as he gives himself to us in Communion.
Fr. Jerry Ragan