My mother loved the Italian crooner, Perry Como (I’ve just lost half of you!). His theme song went something like, “Dream along with me. We’re on the way to the stars.” Mom would swoon. Dad would roll his eyes.

So what shall we dream? Let’s dream about what life may look like by the end of this year. (Remember now, these are hopes and dreams . . . we’ll see what happens!)

What would life be like? (I’ve almost forgot how it used to be). After Covid, with no masks and no social distancing, you could . . .

• Let little children run into your arms to hold them tight.
• Whisper private thoughts close to a friend’s ear. No masks of course.
• Dinner together with friends at a restaurant. We order a plate of cheese cake with 4 forks and all dig in!
• Come to mass at Holy Trinity. Better go early to get a seat. Real hand shakes at the Greeting of Peace.
• Weddings, baptisms, funerals – – – everybody is there to love and support!
• Coffee Hour after mass. Big donuts and getting news from friends.
• Travel to see friends and family. “Daddy, can we swim in the pool?” “Of course you can.”
• Seniors at Holy Trinity travel by bus to Skaneateles for a boat ride and dinner.
• Teenagers have an overnight at Camp Stella Maris to get their spirits renewed.
• Trips to Frontier Field, Bills Stadium, Regal Cinema . . . share popcorn? Sure!
• The huge parish picnic on the North Field. Your deviled eggs (yum!). Big bowl of Dorito’s, . . . dig in!
• Holy Trinity Snow-Ball III. Music, food, dancing (imagine that!)
• Baby-sitting is back.
• Consoling people . . . with your arm around them.
• Slumber Parties for kids.
• Altar Servers, choirs, parish greeters are all back. Okay. Enough with the dreaming. Here we are, early March, still cold, still masked. So what do we do? We smile. We pray. We reach out. As for the pan- demic, this too shall pass.

Let’s be better people . . . a humble, gentle people when we can finally shake hands (not bump elbows).

In the meantime see below . . . . Fr. Tim

Lenten Speaker Series: Survival Guide.

Sunday evenings at 7 pm. in church and Livestream.

March 7: Getting Vaccinated

Everything you need to know. Mark Malahosky, pharmacist at Trillium Pharmaceuticals, will show us the way to get your shots and answer any questions you may have.

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March 14: Mental Health for Youth.

A panel discussion with a Crisis Hot line Counselor, Webster middle school teacher, and a Family Counselor and psychologist. Discussion will focus on the unique emotional pressures our young people experience in these days of remote learning and social distancing. Help for troubled teens.

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March 21: What’s Happening to my Faith?

Fr. Tim and Fr. John will discuss what steps we can take to actually deepen our faith in these days of Livestream masses.

Sundays. 7 pm. Livestream and in Church

The Gospel tells us Jesus was led into the desert to be tempted by the devil. There he fasted for forty days. That was the first Lent. That’s where Catholics get the forty day period we observe each year. Well guess what? It’s kinda been Lent since last March.

That’s right. If Lent is to be a time of “going without” for the sake of getting in touch with God, these last 11 months have already been a very profound season of penance. So now we add one more reason to due penance? Oh goodie.

These past months have been difficult for all of us. Perhaps for the first time you have experienced real suffering. What does our faith teach us?

Years ago, St. Pope John Paul II was visiting the critical care unit in a hospital in Rome. He spoke to seriously ill patients, encouraging them and challenging them to see the hand of God in their suffering. “Don’t waste this time of suffering”, he said.

Don’t waste our suffering? What could this possibly mean?

It really is a pivotal decision we make about life. Is my suffering a sign of an absurd and cruel world? Something to be avoided at all costs? Something that makes my safety most important? OR, is my suffering a part of a life lived in union with Christ? A burden to be carried in love?

Jesus told us suffering would be something that happens to all of us. “If you would be my disciple, you must take up your cross and follow me. For in saving your life (hoarding life), you will lose it. In losing your life for my sake, you will find it.” Matt. 16:25

St. Paul tells us that to share in the joy of Christ’s Resurrection we must first share in His sufferings. Good Friday must happen in order to have Easter Sunday.

So back to that hospital room . . . “don’t waste your suffering.” To waste it would be to curse it, to see no hope in it, to grow bitter. To “use” your suffering would be to give it as an offering to the Lord (He first did the same for me).

Parents, you use your suffering as a gift of love for your children. Sleepless nights, endless worry, trips to doctors and counselors, untold money spent, etc. Soldiers, police officers and first responders, you suffer for all of us: on the battlefield, on our streets.

It costs you doesn’t it? But you do it because you love. It is your holy duty which you promised you would do.

This is where suffering is not wasted! It’s redeemed. Jesus Christ is the only one to show us this. Christ on the cross shows us a love (God’s love) never imagined before. And He invites us to give Him our suffering as a sign of our union with Him. It’s only a return on the love He showed us first.

St. Peter was so touched by our “sharing” in the death of our Lord and His Resurrection that he wrote, “Friends, do not be surprised at the painful test you are suffering, as though something unusual were happening to you . . . be glad, you are sharing in Christ’s sufferings, so that your joy may be full when his glory is revealed.” 1 Peter 4: 12, 13.

So what is this joyful thing that happens? The reward of having loved.

So let’s start slow this Lent. You might say goodbye to one small thing that you know needs to go (perhaps just an “attitude” ). Make a conscious offering of it to God.

Lent. Let’s roll!!

Fr. Tim

Romans 7: 14-25 (Read it!)

The older I get the more interested I am in what moves people to want what they want. What is it that resonates in a person that makes them want to spend their time and money on some object or activity?

It starts with our appetites. Certain things are built into us that create a readiness for something that appeals to the senses or the imagination. Most things come to us this way. Smelling bacon in the morning starts a wonderful process that leads to breakfast.

Other things appeal to our spiritual senses. Telling the truth. Being faithful, courageous, or generous. These things have True Value as do. . . people, family, faith, country.

Now there’s a problem. Sometimes the “lower senses” of our physical nature can overpower our higher sensibilities. (try being patient when you haven’t eaten all day!). Other appetites insist we possess certain things: a new cell phone, lap top, puppy, vacation spot, etc. These can have a certain urgency that creates a “want” before we realize it.

So, what’s wrong with wanting something? Nothing at all. It’s how God made us. The problem comes when “wanting” is for something I shouldn’t have. This can cause a real tussle. “But I WAAAANT IT!”, we cried as children (as our parents wisely hid the candy, or ordered the TV turned off). And thus began the life long struggle to achieve the proper balance between need and want.

As a priest I get a bird’s eye view of this struggle when hearing confessions. People come to confess their sins. Most often sin starts by “wanting” something that is contrary to what is right and good.

This wanting is VERY powerful, eventually it can out- weigh the attraction to the higher good. The good loses its appeal. We fall prey to a desire that takes us away from who (in our right mind) we really want to be. I do not do the good that I want to do.

So how can we stop wanting what is bad for us? It comes in finding something I want more. Something in us has to be bigger than the powerful desires for booze, sex, possessions, prestige, popularity, etc.

The problem is at the feeling level. I can know an ideal is good but not FEEL it. What can give us, not just the knowledge about what is right, but the felt “wanting” to do it?

The answer of course is love. Love in the form of LOYALTY. Think for a moment of those people who are privileged to have your love and loyalty . . . your spouse, the children, your best friend. Think how many times you walked away from something you really wanted because of your love for them. In most cases it wasn’t even close! (Her need for braces far outweighed your wanting that vacation trip).

Finally . . . God wants to be in that same privileged place as your daughter or friend. He wants us to walk away from some of our wants because of our love for Him. Jesus did this very thing in the garden. “Father please. Take this a way…but not what I want…help me to want what YOU want.”

It’s a grace from God to want what He wants. Ask for it. His will for us is our peace.

Fr. Tim

Aren’t there times when you just can’t take it anymore?

The name calling, the half-truths, the bullying and humiliating? Makes you want to scream . . . or curse. It doesn’t matter your political or religious views; whatever opinion we hold, it seems we’re headed for an unpleasant confrontation.

Even in the Church we can experience a bitter exchange of ideas and opinion. Take the abortion debate. Someone who might advocate legislation that would limit but not eliminate abortion is “anti-life”. On the other side, those who work for Pro-life legislation are labeled “self righteous”, “anti-feminist”, “women oppressors”.

How unfair these words are. There is no middle ground. One is either a patriot or a traitor. We’ll never come closer to solving these issues as long as we treat each other this way.

Look, we know our faith teaches (and we firmly believe) that human life is sacred from the moment of conception. Abortion is wrong. There is no debating that. How- ever . . . many people (and people of good will) do not have that element of Faith that guides our life. They have come to view abortion as permissible, claiming abortion effects only one human person . . . the mother. The child in the womb has yet to reach personhood so the argument goes.

HOW can we best move people to consider what human life is and how it begins? How can we create a culture that once again sees life in the womb as having a Right to Life?

Two ways, it seems to me – – spiritually and politically. (There are wise heads to guide us politically. The US Bishops Conference is taking a strong stand here in Washing- ton.) The spiritual part is why I’m writing. Words can build up or tear down. We need to be careful.

Have you seen the bumper sticker . . . “My child is an honor student at . .. “? And the rejoinder to it on another bumper? “My child kicked the crap out of your honor student.” I mean what’s bothering this person? Why would you want to be in someone’s face about their child’s grades?

Are you seeing the problem? There are REAL differences of opinion in the public square. Okay . . . so how do we discuss them in a way that can lower the temperature and bring us to a clearer view of the real issues?

Scripture says this rancor and bitterness must not be the way we should deal with others, even those who
one would consider one’s “enemy” get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, outcry and slander,

along with every form of malice. Be kind to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God has forgiven you…. “ Ephesians 4:31

This is not describing some lukewarm way of entering the public debate that fears making waves. No, our participation is to be enthusiastic, joyful and full of conviction. But it is to be matched with an equal desire for fairness and kindness in the debate.

Hope your week holds God’s blessing for you.

Fr. Tim