Pastor's Note

MAKING LISTS
February 24th, 2008

I am a list maker. This is especially true before I take a trip or when I am planning a major presentation – or even putting together what I need to bring to the high school for Sunday Mass. The most frustrating thing, of course, is to lose the list once I’ve made it.
Another type of list that is helpful to make is of friends, family members, and neighbors that we may want to visit. So many folks have so many good intentions of calling, visiting, and in other ways remembering those who may want or need a visit. Yet those calls and visits don’t always take place. Maybe a list would help it happen.
In a sense, it seems a bit impersonal and even cold to have a list in order to do what your heart already has told you is a good thing. Nonetheless, since most people live very active and complicated lives, lists do help.
One of the three big challenges for Lent, as found in the Gospel, is to do charity or service. Although there are wonderful, organized programs like St. Vincent de Paul, everyone is also called to do the little, informal acts of charity. And this is where our list of those who need visits comes in. A list can help make that happen.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the first of the three calls of Lent: fasting. Last week I emphasized prayer and a place to pray. This is the third and last part of the series.
I am certain that what we don’t want to happen is that at the end of Lent we discover that we still have not contacted Aunt Martha who is ill or the elderly gentleman who lives alone down the street. We can make it happen by making the plan today.