“Blessed are those who renounce their own comfort in order to help others,” is the fifth modern beatitude that Pope Francis offered us back in November. With all the rains these past weeks there are many in our community who are uncomfortable and seek a warm, dry place at the local cold weather shelter. Here they find caring folks who have renounced their own comfort to help man the shelter on the nights it is open (our parish volunteers Friday night through Saturday morning). And there are many school families who have reached out to help those in need and have contributed socks and other items that are given to the folks when they arrive at the shelter. I brought several bags of socks our school had collected on Monday night and those who had come that evening were most glad to receive clean, dry socks. That is one example of what Pope Francis meant when he presented this modern beatitude. Our 7th grader gives us some other ways to renounce our comfort and help others.
If you are interested in other ways to help, our DDF video we saw this past weekend highlighted some of the other ministries we have at our parish. Please see the back of the parish bulletin or call the parish office for more information about the cold weather shelter and these ministries.
How to Evangelize Mercy
by Eric
We can evangelize mercy by showing love to the poor. For example my Boy Scout troop, Troop 11, does an annual food drive for homeless shelters. Doing this I show mercy to those who need it through food and help. Jesus said, “When I was hungry, you fed me,” so we must do so with others. Also when you see a homeless person on the street you could give them your leftovers from dinner. If you know someone who was in a disaster you can let them stay at your place until they can go back home.
Our 5th graders were in charge of Mass today where we celebrated the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, that intense encounter with Jesus that turned Paul’s life upside down. As part of their preparation for today they took a closer look at Saul who became Paul, and the culmination of all their study was made into individual videos. Miss Klorer chose six of the videos for me to post under Jesus, Go! I also tweeted Alex M.’s video—hers was picked because she additionally made props for her video, giving it added flavor. They are all worth looking at and are between a minute and two minutes in duration. Jesus, Go! is found under Spiritual Life on the school’s main web page.
Don’t want to go too far on a rainy night? Why not take in a movie? Come by the parish hall this Thursday night, 26 January, from 7-9p and watch The Light Between Oceans, the Cinema for the Soul offering for this month.
Thank you. Mrs. Alhadef