Pastor's Message

August 26, 2001

THE EXCITEMENT OF NEW

After one of last Sunday's Masses, a six-year-old girl exclaimed with great enthusiasm that there were only nine more days until she started first grade! Her excitement was contagious. It reminded me how I felt every year before going back to school. School, for me, was always something I looked forward to, an attitude that continued through college and seminary.

This week thousands of children will be returning to the classroom. Many will be going for the first time. A spirit of a new beginning is in the air.

Although some children dread school or feel sad that summer is over, most tend to be excited about getting back with other children. There are those who can't wait to explore new learning, and there are those who are merely happy to have new school clothes and book bags.

Whatever the attitude, this week we once again begin a journey through nine months. It is a time of discovery, a time for becoming who we were not before.

My prayer is that everyone commit themselves to on-going growth and learning. Parents are so necessary in the education process. The messages that parents give their kids are often more lasting than what is heard in the classroom. And although it sometimes seems to be "in style" for parents to challenge or even oppose the teachers and school administrators, I ask all parents to work with the various schools to support your children's learning.

God's blessings be with us during this new school year!

Fr. Herb

August 19, 2001

WE'RE IN THIS TOGETHER

I was sixteen and taking my driver's license test when another driver turned into the street right in front of me. The exam official, in the passenger seat, shouted for me to brake. As I did that, he asked if I had seen the other car. My naive response was, "Sure, but I had the right of way." He agreed that I was correct, but even at that, there would have been an accident if I had not stopped.

I learned two lessons that day, lessons that have stayed with me, lessons that apply to more than driving. The first is that even when you are right, there may still be some trouble. Secondly, all people are affected by each other's actions.

I wonder how many fights continue with no resolution because both parties are convinced they are right. Being right is way over-rated when it comes to relationships. Being right over whether or not you remembered a phone message, for example, pales in comparison to the amount of hurt done to each other in the name of "right." Regardless who is right - and most of the time, it is never settled - misunderstandings and disagreements hurt everyone.

Sometimes those around us truly make mistakes. (Don't we all?) It is not only their job to clean up after themselves. If they are part of our lives, we have to be invested enough to share the burden of repair.

We are all in this together.

Fr. Herb

August 5, 2001

ALL ABOUT SCENTS

An old man was showing me his backyard rose garden. Dozens of flowers were blooming every color that you can imagine for roses. It all looked perfect to me.

Then I noticed at about every fourth or fifth plant, there was a three-foot metal stake with a little meshed bag of something suspended from it. Furthermore, the bag then had an upside-down paper cup over it, apparently shielding it from rain.

I tried to figure out the purpose of this device just as I tried to guess the contents of the meshed sack. When I asked the man, he told me it was a home-made remedy for the deer. Inside each bag was a bar of Irish Spring soap. The gardener went on to say that in previous years the deer had taken to his roses like diners at Old World Buffet. The strong scent of the soap, he reported, is keeping the deer away this year.

I'm not sure the Irish Soap people would like to promote their product by saying it repels animals. It is interesting, though, to think that the same scent that may be attractive to humans is not so with other living creatures.

Sometimes the world does not make sense to us. Other times, the scents of the world make life truly interesting.

Fr. Herb