I thought it might be helpful this week to talk about the new paint scheme that has just begun in the church. I’d like you to know the process we’re using in getting the new coloring just right.

First off, what you see in the back of church is an experiment. There is, of course, a general idea as to the color palette to be used (a sky blue for the ceiling, a sage green of sorts for the walls, and various accent colors on the church horizontals).

What follows in the next week will be adjustments to the shades (light and dark) of the palette. This will happen in conversation with the designer and selected parishioners who are skilled themselves in color and décor. (Your comments to me and any staff person are welcome and will be considered in forming the final coloring. But I’m sure you understand that we’ll have to go with our best thought.)

But there’s another matter that the painting of the church surfaces. How do we deal with change? Many of you have come to Holy Trinity for years. You’ve come to know and love this worship space. I have too.

But do you know how it looked before the current painting? It was totally different. Stencils and statues were every- where in the church. As was the fashion back then, “more is better”. Every space was filled with something.

Then came the late 60’s and 70’s. It was then thought that blank canvas walls (white) were the best way to emphasize the windows and the dome. Plain and simple was the philosophy. And so it has been for over 40 years.

Each person has their own taste, their favorite colors, etc. I remember coming to Holy Trinity ten years ago and in my first look at the church (I’ve never told you this before), I thought, “why is it all white?”

But in these years I’ve come to appreciate you and the liturgy that happens here. I’ve gotten used to this space. More than used to . . . I love this space. We get used to things. What seems “different” soon becomes “home”.

So friends, I’m asking you to trust the very good people who are driving this project, the designers, the painters, the parish committee. Yes, it will be different; and not just for difference sake    it will be better. It will serve the generations yet to come.

It will be a beautiful space for weddings, funerals, First Communions, Christmas and Easter and, of course, Sunday Mass.

I promise to be in regular contact with you about the plan as it goes forward. In turn I trust YOU to be constructive and helpful as we beautify this sacred space.

Bless you. Fr. Tim

PS. It’s going to be beautiful.

There are 1.9 billion Catholics in the world today. We are the largest religious community in the world. The Church spans the five continents and its peoples possess over one hundred languages. The number of races, cultures and geographies is mind boggling . Yet we are all “One Body, one Spirit in Christ”.

So how does this huge Church keep it all together? How is the Church leadership guided to find the will of Christ for her in the new millennium? These are changing times with many challenges: a world wide pandemic, the scandal of clergy abuse, mass attendance down in Europe and America, a growing shortage of priests, and an overall anxiety about any government’s ability to create a livable society.

Certainly she has the constant aid of the Holy Spirit. The Pope and bishops are graced in a special way to help steer the ship. But how do they hear the Holy Spirit? Do they possess some crystal ball that let’s them see what the Church should be doing in these difficult times?

No one body within the Catholic Church has all the answers. That is why Pope Francis and the bishops would like your help. They want to know what YOU think. You see, within the Church there are different voices. The bishop and priest preach and teach. Theologians delve deep into the mysteries of the Faith. Missionaries bring Christ to foreign lands. Monks and religious orders live lives of prayer. All have a work, a voice, that adds to the mission of the worldwide Catholic Church.

And you friend, what do you have that moves the Church to become like Christ? You have the gift of Faith that makes you a partner in the work of Christ in the world. The Laity, all together, have what theologians call the “Sensus Fidei” (the sense of Faith).

That means you have an intuition, a “right thinking”, about our Catholic Faith. Like a homing device, the faithful have a “Christ thinking” that can guide the Church in each age.

Soooo . . . Pope Francis and the bishops want to know what you think. He has highlighted 10 issues facing the church and society and asked that you pray and reflect on them. Then the Synod invites your response at parish meetings (to be announced) or written (the HT website will show you how to send your thoughts).

Bishop Matano will receive feedback from all the parishes in the diocese and send them on to Washington and from there, with all the other dioceses in the US, to Rome. This enormous amount of feedback will be distilled into the major findings and presented to a worldwide gathering of bishops in Rome, 2023.

It will provide the feedback of the “Catholic People” to the Pope and bishops (the Magisterium) for their consideration, and guidance. Also, for our new bishop, soon to be appointed, it will be of great help in getting to know the mind of the Faithful in the Diocese of Rochester.

Here at Holy Trinity there will be gatherings of various groups and committees to discuss the issues. Already Parish Council and the Senior Ministry met last week to share their thoughts. Parishioners here at HT will be see- ing the issues to be discussed and times and ways to make your comments known. (In the meantime, you can read more about the Synod and the questions it puts forward on our website).

Wonderful things happen when we come together to speak honestly and to really listen. I hope you will consider being a part of the conversation. Stay tuned.

Bless you.
Fr. Tim

There’s a crab apple tree outside my office window. I’d say it’s some 15 to 20 years old. Each spring it explodes into a wonderful cloud of pink blossoms that last for about 10 days.

It stands naked right now except for several thousand little crab apples arranged throughout its skinny tree limbs. They’ll all be eaten by hungry robins come spring. And here friends, hangs our lesson for the week.

Against the dull gray sky, the tree is all in black silhouette. Each little crab apple hangs at random, like a drop- let along each branch. The whole tree fits exactly in my window as if it were a picture frame.

It’s perfect. And that’s the point. The tree just happened. There wasn’t a care in the world when each apple began to grow on the tree, yet it has a balance and proportion any artist would covet. You could entitle the art of my window view . . . “Crab Apple Against a Winter Sky”.

I’m sure you’ve seen this “effortless beauty” of nature for yourself. Walk through a pine forest. Look down at the random pine needles on the ground. They’re perfectly, beautifully arranged where they’ve fallen. See the perfect curve of the snow drift at the corner of your house (how did the wind get to be such an artist?). I won’t even start with the random beauty of clouds or sun light.

The point is . . . it’s exquisite. And it’s free for any eye that wishes to really look. Listen to the leaves in the wind, waves on the beach, thunder in the storm . . . they’re perfect in a wondrous way. And it all happens with a carelessness that would make any artist jealous for the brilliance it displays.

And guess what? It’s FOR YOU. God made it for you, not for any other creature. Do you think the deer in the forest gives a fig for the brilliant Fall leaves that surround it?

Does the eagle pause in midflight to marvel at the beauty in the valley below? Do the flames dancing in your fire place giving calm and comfort mean anything to your cat?

How little mind we give this gift. Sometimes I imagine the Lord saying, “Look, nobody gets it. I make all this cool stuff and all my creatures just take it for granted. Fish swim in it. Birds fly in it. Buffalo graze on it, but not one “Wow!” Not one, ‘Thanks Lord”. You man, you woman. Can’t I get a little appreciation here?”

When you think about it, we humans are the spokespersons for the rest of creation. We have a voice to speak on behalf of the running stream, the soaring eagle . . . “Thank you Lord.”

Pope Francis has written an encyclical called Laudato Si (“Praise be to You”). In it he points to an appreciation of this created world as a gift of God. He reminds us that the earth is humanity’s common home; it needs our care and protection in the way we use its natural resources. The generations to come have an equal right to drink clean water and breathe clean air.

But back to us humans for a moment. Of all the beauty of God’s creation, (the birds, the flowers, and yes, those little puppies) can you think of anything quite as captivating, and endlessly expressive as the human face? Why is that? Because it is the window to the human spirit . . . which, in case you’d forgotten, is a face that God had. To look on the human face is to see some faint image of God himself.

All this to say, “Oh Lord, how great thou art.” Open your eyes. His glory is everywhere.

Fr. Tim

Sometimes it seems religion and science describe two different worlds. The world of science and nature is the one that roots us in our daily lives. Religion, on the other hand, is about a world we hope exists but we cannot see. (Unfortunately, science sometimes discredits the knowledge Faith gives.)

Some think when we talk about religion we have to put our knowledge of this world on the shelf (Eg. our knowledge of astronomy.) Our Faith tells us Jesus “came down from heaven”, “he suffered death and was buried . . . and rose again”, then he “ascended into heaven”, and “is seated at the right hand of the Father.”

The words seem to indicate a heaven situated a few miles above us, from which he “came down” and then “ascended” back. It’s like a palace in the air with two chairs set side by side. One chair is for God the Father (he’s the older looking one with the silver hair); the other for the Son (who’s a youngish man (33) wearing sandals and a beard. This is Heaven.

Add to this Jesus saying, “in my Father’s house there are many mansions. . . I am going to prepare a place for you.” Jn. 14:2 and one can imagine a place not unlike Candyland. There’s the Candy Castle and there on his throne is King Candy.

I’m not trying to be a smart aleck here. This is what the words of the bible can cause us to imagine about God and Jesus and heaven. And these imaginings can seem childish next to the hard and sometimes scary facts about the limitless cosmos.

What can we say to help here? I think the first thing to remember is the difference between believing and imagining. “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” This is a statement of faith . . there is one God, and all that is, comes from God.

But then we imagine. “What did making the earth look like?” Michelangelo tried his brilliant best in the Sistine Chapel. Remember that painting of God the Father on the cloud reaching out with his divine finger to touch the finger of the sleeping Adam? Did it really look like that? No. But does it convey a truth? Of course. God created us out of love. How exactly? We don’t know. Science can help here.

Or the story of Adam and Eve, the Serpent and the Apple. Did the “Fall of humanity” look like that? No. But is it true? Was there a moment, when, by the actions of the first human couple, we have become strangers to God and to ourselves? Absolutely!! (Read St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans Ch. 7).

So, two things are happening here. The WHAT of Faith and the HOW it happened.

• The WHAT of Faith . . . God the Eternal has come into our world from outside time and space to become one with the human race in the man Jesus.
• The HOW it happened . . . the Nativity scene or most any Christmas card.
• The WHAT of Faith . . . Jesus ascends into heaven to be with the Father and Holy Spirit.
• The HOW it happened . . . The picture in the dome at Holy Trinity Church or El Greco’s “Ascension”.

The church wants us to know what is true; then artists and poets imagine the visuals. Science offers some facts and then some theories. Some of those are helpful and inspir- ing. Some are silly and wrong. What is needed is a deeper understanding of MYSTERY. And science needs to keep in its lane as to what it knows and what it doesn’t know. How does science describe the moment of creation? The best it’s come up with so far . . . “something went Bang!”

There’s lot’s more to talk about here. Another time perhaps.

Hey it’s winter . . . stay warm . . . I’m in Florida! Heh, heh.

Fr. Tim

In these days, marked by Covid, political malfunction, social distancing, it might be well to tell you, good reader, how happy my life as a priest has been.

There is of course the happiness of marriage and family life: spousal love, the birth of children and their thousand “firsts” (first step, first word, etc.), holidays, vacations, family nights. Everyone knows these joyful moments.

Did you ever wonder about the secret happiness of a priest? I am convinced that few people know the joys of a priest’s life. I’m sure Fr. John has his list of the happiness of priesthood. Here’s a list of mine.

• The surprising newness of the tools of our trade: the psalms, scripture, the prayers of the sacraments, al- ways seem fresh and full of power to touch and heal.
• The beauty of the liturgical seasons and the “inside” experience priests have of them each year.
• Secret moments just between God and me.
• The deep peace in knowing we were used by God in very specific ways to help a soul that was burdened with sorrow or sickness.
• Watching the beauty of a bride come down the aisle to meet her soon to be husband, and to know our lives as Priest/Bridegroom, point to the Bride yet to come 􏰁􏰁􏰁􏰁 The New Jerusalem.
• Of course the confessional . . . we see the guilt and burden of sin lifted from God’s children. The hope and faith that gets fanned into flame with the words “I absolve you . . .”. (The humble and tender way people speak their sorrow for sin never ceases to touch my heart. “Lord, do you see how much they love you?”, I tell God.)
• The love of God’s people who look at us at times as they would look upon Christ. (Oh how I wish I were as good as your kindness toward me). How touching is your love for the priest.
• The privileged and sacred moment in the pulpit when the living Word of God comes out of you and is received by His people. It’s a holy moment, a goose bump moment.
• To be called “Father” and know it means something very good.
• To have wise old priests, with battle worn faces, light up when they greet you. Their humble lives have been poured out for thousands of people. Now, older and bent, they smile a secret smile. (Fr. John and I love our Saturday night dinners with our brother priests.)
• To see the Paschal Mystery up close. That means: through suffering and death to self, we experience a victory over sin and selfishness . . . and the love of Christ poured into our hearts. I’ve seen this in so many of you in your darkest hour your Faith.
• The collar. I like wearing it; sometimes for the stares it gets.
• Convocation – seeing my fellow priests all together each year with our bishop. Watching the grey hairs grow!! (or have fled entirely!).
• Time. (I love this one). You can use it as you see fit. In a sense there is no “inconvenient time”. The priest’s time is meant to be spent on the people and their needs 􏰁 􏰁 not a time clock at work.

There are lots more I could mention. (Be sure, of course, there is another list of sad or difficult times for the priest. We all have a list like that). But after 43 years as a priest (Fr. John’s 57!), I can honestly say I’d be a priest again in a heartbeat.

Let me end with a message to our young men. Take a look into your heart. God is calling you to give your life for others. Could it be he’s calling you to be His Priest?

I’m praying for you.

Fr. Tim

I’m sitting here on a Monday looking out my office window. It’s currently 18 degrees outside under gray skies. I’m searching for something to talk to you about that you might find of some interest. I’m not finding it.

Things feel kind of flat this morning. The Sunday masses, RCIA class, and two baptisms are all done. Covid concerns are popping up every where it seems. The cold and gray will be here for what? 3? 4 more months? I’m starting to get into a mood. Ever happen to you?

So let’s talk about “moods”. Webster is always a good starting place: “Mood: a temporary state of mind. A pervading quality of feeling at a particular moment.” They come in all shades, don’t they. Good ones, happy ones, sad, bored, excited. But the ones we talk about the most, are the bad ones. (Just like the news we watch on TV, good news doesn’t get the headlines.) We expect to feel good/okay in the normal course of things and pay it no attention. It’s the bad moods we’re most aware of.

I think it depends on how old you are to see how bad moods can affect us. Remember when as a child, you took sick to your stomach?, Christmas failed to bring a new bike?, a rainedout baseball game? The world was about to end.

Teenagers collapse at the sign of a pimple, a “C” in English class, being laughed at in the cafeteria, getting snubbed by the “in group”. Later on in life, disappointments with work, a failed relationship, ones “status” compared to others can send us off, not just to a mood, but to a permanent way of viewing life as a disappointment.

Combine that with the way we are wired (some have a natural tendency to see life’s cup as half empty) and soon we discover there needs to be a governor that regulates and disciplines our moods. Otherwise they carry us off. Our feelings begin to tell us who we are.

With age, we begin to discover that’s not true. We’ve been up and down and all around enough to realize “this too shall pass”. Think back. Aren’t you glad you didn’t act on your first impulse? You didn’t quit whatever; you didn’t make that angry phone call; you waited till the mood passed. And it did pass. Didn’t it?

So here are some tips from an old man about how to deal with bad moods.

• Don’t believe the message that we should be happy all the time. The entertainment industry makes millions portraying life as it should be   endlessly exciting and fulfilling. It can be at times, but not how they think.
• Don’t think there’s something wrong with you if your moods happen to be sad. Hey, life has these moments. We can learn from them but not be ruled by them.
• If the moods last and become a constant worry or sadness, TALK TO SOMEONE ABOUT THEM. Sometimes just speaking our feelings to a friend can be like a medicine. It connects us to a trusted person. (That person may be a priest or doctor if you think it might help.)
• Get out of yourself. Focus on something that needs doing (like this bulletin!) Who needs your help?
• Please, please . . . don’t make any life changing decisions in the spell of a bad mood. Wait. (An old priest friend of mine went a step further to say, “Don’t ever make an important decision after the sun goes down. Wait till the light of daytime.” Why? Because our enemy fear moves better at night.)
• Lastly. You are a Child of God. You are loved. That fact remains. Moods don’t.

Guess what? I’m outa that mood!!

Fr. Tim

We pray each day, “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done.” Jesus tells us, “whoever does the will of my Father is brother and sister to me.” (Matthew 12:50). And he himself, that terrible night in the garden prayed, “Not my will, but thine be done.”

So the question is, what does God want? What is His will for us?

Here begins the long story of the human race and the tragic results of not doing God’s will. Remember the Garden with Adam and Eve. God’s will was filled with many wonderful commands: “be fertile and multiply (have lots of kids!)” “Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and every living thing.” (Genesis 1:26) God’s wish is that we be master of all creation.

However . . . our dominion was to be exercised in obedience to God’s will. “You are free to eat of any of the trees in the garden but do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” You know the story; we disobeyed.

Why? We had everything we could want. A wonderful partner for life, food galore, and best of all . . . friendship with our Maker. What happened to make us disobey? Adam and Eve say they were “tricked”. The Tempter (aka. the devil) got them thinking that God’s way was unfair. “You won’t die,” said the serpent. “You will become like God!” And God doesn’t want you to be his equal, we could add.

Ever since then, we humans have had this feeling that God is not to be trusted; that He wants to keep us under His thumb! Somehow we got it into our heads that God was a grumpy taskmaster that didn’t want us to be happy or free. When we take the time to even think about it, we feel God saying, “Don’t do that or that or that!” God is no fun!

This is all part of the devil’s trick. He wants to turn us away from God’s plan for us; to doubt that He even cares about us. (I bet you’ve had these feelings).

And this is exactly why God sent His Son   to show us who He is, and to correct our understanding of God. Jesus spent his whole life trying to get us to see what God is like. He tells us to call Him “Father”. Parable after para- ble tell of His love for us, His forgiveness, the plan to share His divine nature with by accepting Christ into our life. God is offering us Eternal Life!

Now, we need to ask a question here. It’s about your REAL happiness. Haven’t you found that when you put yourself aside to meet the needs of others, when you’ve been generous with your time, your kindness, your truthfulness, that you discover a happiness “the world cannot take away”? It’s a feeling that might be described as “clean” or “right with God” or (if you’re a theologian!) “integral”. It’s a happiness that brings peace and gentleness and self control.

But let’s go back to that garden where Jesus, filled with fear, surrenders to his Father’s will. It certainly was not a moment of peace and happiness. It was a moment of TRUST and OBEDIENCE. Jesus trusted in His Father’s plan of salvation for humankind. He trusted that, somehow, through the selfless offering of his life on the cross, there would be the manifestation of GOD WHO IS LOVE.

True to His Son’s word, God the Father raised Christ from the dead to be “the first fruits of all who have died . . so too shall all be brought to life.” 1 Corinthians 15: 20-23

Life with God forever in Christ. How’s that for happy? God’s will is our peace.

Fr. Tim

Christianity is the single most important event in the history of the human race. It has given us an understanding of who we are as human beings. We are children of God and heirs to Eternal Life with God.

Through its older sister, Judaism, Christianity has come to know that there is one God. This one God has created the world as a reflection of his goodness. The man and the woman are the Crown of that creation and bear a re- semblance to the Creator like no other creature in the universe.

In Jesus Christ we come to know our purpose in life here on earth (to love God and our neighbor as ourselves). And by his Resurrection we know that in Christ we are called to be with God forever.

This astounding fact has set us FREE. We have broken the chains of the primeval world. Previous powers enslaved us. Idolatry, superstition (no more rabbit’s foot!), and magic have been shown for what they are   nothing.

Christianity’s grasp of reality has changed the world. Such things as democracy, universities, science and scientific method, medicine, modern art (realism), farming, and charity toward the poor all have their inspiration from Christ’s invitation to seek the Truth. Jesus tells us “Obey my teaching and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31

Freedom gives life meaning . . . either good or bad . . . depending on us.

We need to be careful. All is not well yet. In spite of over 2000 years of Christianity, the world is still in process. The wound dealt to God’s creation by the free disobedience of the human race continues to affect every one of us.

And the wound? A hunger for autonomy from God, a desire to be free from any norm that requires my obedience. We all have this. Call it what you want, “my bad self”, “selfishness”, “the rebel in me”. Faith calls it the “original sin” . . . in you and me and the world.

Anyone over six years of age has experienced this strange and intoxicating desire. Most of us learn the hard way; we follow these impulses toward pleasure, excitement, and selfgratification till we discover that their promise of happiness was a lie.

So how do we get it right? The first thing we need to do (and if this doesn’t happen we’re lost!) is realize we have this rebel in us. (Please tell me you’ve met this part of yourself right? That rebel . . . you!). It shows itself in a “me first” way of looking at life. It starts small, and seems harmless, but if left unimpeded, it will create a world of its own, separate from God who gives us life.

We’re going to need some help here. We can’t heal the tendency we have to seek our own world unbothered by the duties of loving.

Here’s where the Holy Spirit comes in. He frees us from ourselves, knowing that in Christ, we have our hearts de- sire. It’s all there is Sacred Scripture.

“The Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God’s children . . . and since we are his children we will possess with Christ what God has kept for him.” “For there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:17, 39.

Happy New Year.

God is with you.

Fr. Tim

Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The Holy Family, what a team!. Mary, the mother, was conceived without sin (Immaculate Conception), Joseph (a just and faith filled man) and Jesus, God in human flesh . . . it sounds like a household of Super Heroes. They’re certainly not like MY family.

Before we look at this saintly group, let’s look back a bit at the whole idea of “family”. That familiar picture we have: the house with the picket fence, the kids playing in the front yard; mom, in her apron getting dinner ready and dad, just back from work, calling out “Honey, I’m home!”    is really a fairly recent view of a middle class home.

To go back a thousand years or so, “family” was more like a “clan” or a tribe. That African saying, “It takes a village to raise a child” is evident in much of history. In primitive times, with dangers lurking in nature (lions!) and neighboring peoples (Those Hatfields!), an extended family was the best way to insure safety and a co operative way of getting things done.

We see evidence of this in Jesus’ childhood. When he was 12, his whole “extended family” in Nazareth traveled by caravan to Jerusalem. Jesus was gone from Mary and Joseph for a day or so with no apparent concern from his parents. “As they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it, thinking he was in the caravan (with the rest of the relatives)” Luke 2:43, 44. They returned to Jerusalem and “after three days (!) they found him in the temple.”

So what does “family” look like today? It comes in many shapes and sizes.

Blended families, single parent families, extended, adopted etc. What does your family look like? Mine has shrunk somewhat. Mom and dad are gone over 10 years so the Horan’s are 3 (Patty, Tim, and Maureen). This is what I mean when I say “I’m visiting family”.

How about your family? Big? Small? Just you? We look at photos of Christmas’s past and we smile . . . or tear up a bit. Over the years family changes, doesn’t it?

But something about belonging to a family never changes; it’s where we learn how to give and receive love. St. Pope John Paul called the family the “School of Love”. It’s where we learn to live for others and accept others kindness in turn. Family is where we help each other come to know the goodness of God. It’s been called the “Domestic Church”.

Now here’s the exciting part . . . real family, described above, can happen anywhere, with any group of people. Jesus himself pointed to this. Remember the story of Jesus preaching in a crowded house. “Someone told him, ‘your mother and brothers are standing outside wishing to speak with you.’” Jesus said in reply, ”who are my moth- er and brothers?” And stretching out his hand he said, “here is my (family). Whoever does the will of my Heavenly Father is mother, brother and sister to me.” Matthew 12: 48,49.

It’s a new kind of family. One that is intended and sustained by the will of God. The Family of Christ. The Church in the widest sense, people of good will, seeking to love God and neighbor as Jesus has instructed us.

And guess what? This family is thicker than blood or ethnicity. Its Father is our Heavenly Father; Mary is its mother. We all are God’s Children. Please help Holy Trinity Church be a part of Christ’s Family by the way we treat all who join us.

Welcome brother! Welcome sister!

Bless this Family.
Fr. Tim