Have you noticed how other people, maybe even you, are constantly late and keep people waiting? Have you noticed other people, maybe even you, who are on time or ready even a little early? People who are constantly late are either unintentionally or intentionally expressing that other people and their time do not matter. “You can simply wait for me as if you and your time are not of value” is often the un-thought thought. We called these folks “thoughtless or obtuse.” We all are late at some point and may have a valid excuse such as sudden responsibilities, un-planned traffic due to an accident, children, “others,” or whatever as an excuse. Some people always seem to take advantage of a real or vague excuse and are always late. Some folks excuse themselves by saying “Well, I am always late.” They do not understand that being chronically late is a serious flaw because, in fact, it expresses their lack of valuing others. We have now begun the season of Advent. We know this is called the Season of Waiting. This waiting, however, is different.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary’s,

I am sending this letter early this week so that I can offer you a special Greeting for our Thanksgiving Holiday. On behalf of all Ministerial, Pastoral and Support Staff I wish you and your loved ones a day of peace and thanksgiving in these most turbulent of times.

Just a very important reminder: to gain access to our live-stream Masses and Services: always go to our website and then click on Livestream Masses – this is for a Mass in real time or to view a past Mass that is recorded. It appears that our YouTube connection for Masses has trouble with the electronic widgets at the moment and does not work for us.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary’s,

Last week’s letter was only a few sentences, so this week is a little bit longer with all sorts of good news and information!

This very Sunday, November 22 at 7 in the evening, the Interfaith Council of Franklin will be hosting our Annual Thanksgiving Service via ZOOM. I invite you to participate in this beautiful service of giving thanks for the many blessings and gifts that are in our lives. To be sure this is a different way for us this year to mark this moment of gratitude in our lives, but it can be a prayerful and enriching moment for us in our faith journey. Lest we forget, we need to pause and remember. As people of faith, we walk in the light of our God. So we need to see the grace, light and beauty which surround us. I am including in this email the Zoom link for you to make it as easy as possible for you to join in, pray and reflect with other members of our Parish and Town Community:

Franklin Interfaith Council - Annual Thanksgiving Service - Sun, Nov 22 at  7:00pm https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5085285348

Our Feast day today of Christ our King, which ends the Church year for us, is meant to bring our attention and focus back to Jesus Christ. Throughout the year as we retell the story of Jesus Christ in the scriptures at Mass, we may at times drift off to other matters of faith. This Sunday is to put an exclamation point after the word “Jesus” for us so that we may remember who we are and whom we follow.

Our Catholic Tradition is very old and is richly filled with many customs and pieties which can at times lead people away from the centrality of our faith in the Triune God who is Father, Son, and Spirit with the Son as our Savior and Redeemer. Too often we can at times allow ourselves to get involved with exotica or “shiny things or vestments” and get distracted from the basics of our faith. We have a purpose, meaning, and power because of the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Folks often prefer to get distracted from the essentials of our faith because it is actually easier. Some folks like to get caught up in the theoretical but not real scholas-tic theology, the Tridentine Ritual, private revelation, or even with some object that may look like a possible image of Jesus or Mary (of whom we have no actual pictures and do not know what either looked like). It appears that people like distractions because it takes away their responsibility for what matters in faith. We now end the church year by putting into perspective what we are supposed to be about. We are Christians in the Roman Catholic Way of Life. We are followers of Jesus Christ.

Our church often adopts processes, dynamics, and terms from the business world to help us understand, improve, and maintain our various combination functions. We are advised at meetings that our talks, homilies, written articles, letters, bulletin pieces, and social media pages should always be “on message” and “on task”. I often say that when giving a homily, it should take off, then fly purposely and directly and then come into land at its destination. Too often bishops, priests, deacons, vowed religious, and laypeople wander around in their sermons, homilies, or talks without clear purpose or message and also never seem to end the main thought of their talk; it just simply never lands until it crashes. Homilies, talks, speeches, etc. should con-tribute greatly to our faith development. We need our public speakers to be people who have a vision and understanding of our faith and are willing to share it clearly and directly with us. Too often homilies and talks are just loaded up with everything but the sacristy sink! Too much is in fact usually too much. Often the less said is more said well.

Advertisers often try to engage our attention by using words like “quick”, “fast”, “convenient”, “prepared”, “saves time”, or similar words. We are encouraged to buy many things so that we have more “free time” to pursue what interests us to be our “better self”, which usually means less than what it says. We are to use all sorts of products to give us all the time necessary for ourselves. Things are to help us be a better person. How we are better usually has to do with looks or physique or something similar. It does not have to do with our inner qualities. Rarely does all this “new time” have to do with the meaning or purpose of our life.

The reading from Wisdom; our first reading, is the most recent of all the Old Testament Books. It was composed in Egypt, not Israel, about a half-century before the birth of Jesus Christ; it is the “newest” Old Testament book. It was written in Alexandria, Egypt somewhere between 50 and 30 B.C. The author is a Jewish scholar and philosopher who writes from the perspective of his minority faith to a majority of Greek culture in a nonJewish country. In this book the author makes Wisdom to be a personified attribute of God. He tells his readers and listeners that Lady Wisdom that is the object of concern for the seeker is readily available. He clearly says that the person who loves, seeks, and watches for Wisdom will find her right nearby. Bear in mind this “Wisdom” is actually God because God is not hidden or elusive or even deceptive or tricky. Wisdom— that is, God— wants to be found; God in the image of Wisdom is open to the seeker.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary’s,

Most of us are still reeling from the snow storm and the bitter cold from this past week or so. It is supposed to get warm again, if 60 is really warm. We now have felt the first snap of winter. We can get lulled into complacency very easily by the mildness of the Fall weather. This is also true regarding the necessary precautions of the COVID Pandemic. Do not be fooled by deniers, naysayers or lulled into letting down your health standards because of the length of this emergency. With the winter upon us, we New Englanders who are made of sterner stuff will do fine. We need to use our sterner stuff during this Pandemic Emergency.

This weekend our Sunday Mass pivots to a very important feast, the Feast of all Saints. Liturgists in our church tradition who plan out the vision and priorities of how our Church calendar of worship will be on Sundays always have a very hard time deviating from the strict values that a Sunday is a Sunday and a feast day basically is always less than Sunday, the great Feast of the Resurrection. I am very glad that occasionally common sense breaks through this rigid vision and we do celebrate certain marvelous feasts on Sunday. For us this year this feast day is a graced reminder of how wonderful our God cares for us through this Pandemic. This feast day is a day of hope, light, and grace among us, not only in times past but right now today, and also in the future. Our Church leaders choose to share with us a vision of the inner heart of people and their daily lives. Indeed we know that it is impossible to name all the official saints of our Church for in just the last thirty years alone, the list is beyond the limits of our knowledge.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary’s,

During this past week, a Parishioner looked at me with confusion on his face when I was talking about how Fr. Jack, the Pastoral Staff and I have been trying to plan Christmas Masses and Services for the last 6 weeks. I could not figure out if he just realized how much thought, planning and work it takes to plan for Parish Masses and Events. Or he may belong to the “magic school” that because he thinks it simply happens. Or maybe he could have been horrified to think that Christmas is not that far away and that because of the Pandemic slowdown, he needs to get cracking and start the Christmas Shopping. Whatever it all was, we as the Pastoral Ministry Staff are sensitively, thoughtfully and carefully planning for Christmas at Saint Mary’s. We want to be able to welcome everyone in various ways in light of their decisions and limitations about participation in light of the Pandemic.

We all as humans share common feelings, such as joy, happiness, sadness, or emptiness. We do not always experience the same events that others do, but the commonality of what joy or sadness or any feeling means or feels like lets us relate to another person in their feelings. We do not have to experience exactly what someone else has experienced to be able to empathize with the feelings people are experiencing or have experienced. We like to think that our personal feelings are singular, whereas in reality they are only singular to us, but in common with the human heart of others.

Our first reading from Exodus notes how God reminds the Israelite people that they were once outsiders. He reminds them of their time in Egypt. He tells them that they know how it feels to be foreigners in a strange land, and therefore they should do nothing against the disadvantaged. That remembrance of those common human feelings should impel them to be careful and respectful in how they treat others who are seen as outsiders.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary’s,

We are blessed that our Parish of Saint Mary’s strong faith and spirit keep us focused on the important things of our lives. We have our faith in Christ to help center us during these difficult and turbulent times. Although many are not able yet to attend Mass on the weekends, many hundreds literally now participate via our Live Stream Masses or the Masses on Catholictv.org. Who would have envisioned that technology could so support our faith? We are also using technology to assist parents with Religious Education for our Young People. Although every student has a book at home, the Directors of Religious Education are also using ZOOM and Webinar Sessions in limited ways for our young people and their parents. Even our Adult Spirituality programs are using technology for enriching and developing people’s faith.

Sometimes after I finish speaking with someone, I later think if only I had said this or that. Or other times: Why did I not think of that answer yesterday when I was talking? Often I realize that I should have said something more or different. One priest, I know always said, Do not ask me a question when I am standing, I cannot understand or give a good answer. I think as I live a life that this response makes more and more sense to me. In the Gospel passages, Jesus is about the only one who has a corrector good answer or comment when he is asked a question or needs to say something. The rest of the characters in the gospel stories seem to be stymied at times or give incorrect answers.

All through the many, many chapters of the Prophet Isaiah we discover the true greatness of God. We are reminded that not only did God create us and know us intimately, but also this great God of ours is so unbelievably incomprehensible that his glory is greater than anything we know. This means that all the “greatness” we know in this world, whether it be super-wealthy, awesome power, or international fame, could only be accomplished through God’s authority. Thus Paul writes to the Thessalonians that God has created them for great things and that God has the power to transform their lives.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary Parish,

The Fall Season moves on in our lives as some important activities re-start with the COVID in place. Our Parish will again be supporting the Men’s and Women’s Faith Formation Programs this year via the media of ZOOM. I invite you to consider involving yourself in this wonderful spiritual enrichment program on one Saturday a month for one hour. Please refer to our parish website to learn more and gain access to the program. You can be part of it from your home this year! Our Religious Education Program for our Young People has also started with a parent friendly approach. The Program will work its way out for everyone. With a little patience and a dab of faith, the various parts of the program will work out fine.

In the sacred scripture this weekend we are to reflect upon images of banquets (sometimes called dinner parties) and celebrations to come to some meaning and understanding of our relationship with God. The prophet Isaiah in his passage writes that all people, not just the selected and chosen ones, will be invited to a special banquet. It appears that this title “banquet” is inadequate in describing the special celebration that was planned. Isaiah is reminding us that when we remember all of the joy and fun found at the best party we’ve ever been to, we still only have a slight glimpse of the day God has planned. This day, this celebration will be the end of all the hurt, suffering, and sadness we have ever known. This great celebration is in honor of salvation, the victory over death.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary’s,

Our First Communion Mass last Sunday at Noontime was absolutely so spiritual and beautiful. One of my most cherished memories of church in my now long life is my Reception of First Communion. Long ago when I made my First Communion, only parents could attend. With the COVID restrictions, we were able only to invite the young child’s entire household and not the usual cast of thousands.

Our first reading this weekend, which comes from the Old Testament from the Book of Isaiah, is a poem or song composed by the prophet about his friend, a vineyard keeper. This composition contains a lot of symbols and has great meaning. The storyline is about his friend, the vineyard keeper, and what can happen. We do not learn right away, but ultimately we discover that this vineyard keeper is God. What happens in the vineyard is important to hear and understand as it has great meaning. His friend the keeper had to first decide what field to use and also to make sure that it was free from rocks and stones and ready for planting. He then had to plant the vines, and in addition, he constructed a vat and tower. The story tells us that he did everything right as a farmer, but that crop did not come out the way it should have. Wild grapes resulted, not finely cultured and luscious grapes. This keeper became really angry and decided to just let it all go back to seed and lay fallow. The field and vineyard would be as it would be.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary’s,

During these coming days many wonderful and sacred events are happening at Saint Mary Parish despite the limitations imposed by the COVID Pandemic. Starting this Sunday, October 3 we will be holding First Communions for our 2020 Class at a special Noon Mass. These Communions will continue for the 3 remaining Sundays of October. Each young person is welcome to have his/her own family household(s) in their special bench in our church, and then the family comes forward and witnesses their young one receive the Body of Christ. What a great and blessed occasion it is for them and also for all of us in our parish faith community. We must rejoice that these children whose parents pledged to bring them in the ways of our faith have now prepared them and presented for Holy Communion.