Associate Pastor's Press

Sts. Peter and Paul

Praise the Lord! May your Christmas be filled with blessings and joy as you celebrate the birth of JESUS! Be assured of my thoughts and prayers as you gather with friends and family. This Thursday we will be heading down to Father Carr's Place 2B to help out servin' others! Give me a call for details. Since it is Christmas break for many students, we'll be heading out sometime during the day on Thursday. We will also be planning some evenings to help out at COTS (churches offering temporary shelter) at St. John the Evangelist Parish. Needs at COTS right now are: Pepto Bismal, medium size coffee cups, toothpaste and toothbrushes, and black winter hats. You can drop this off at the rectory offices. Congrads to STM for their basketball tournament victory! Now and forever,
Father Quinn

3rd Sunday of Advent "Gaudete Sunday"

Praise the Lord! Growing up, we’d often ask ourselves the question, “What should we do?” In the small town of Sturgeon Bay as a teenager during the winter months we’d get bored and ask ourselves this question many times unable to be creative enough or ingenious enough to really make something happen. We’d just resort to some pranks of some kind to satisfy our boredom. For instance, around Christmas time we’d run out to the end of the old train bridge and unplug the Christmas tree they had set out there. Like I said, we lacked imagination.

The question posed to St. John the Baptist, “What are we to do?” is a question we all ask sometime along our spiritual journeys. We often wonder what it is that God wants us to do. We ask ourselves what his will is for us during a particular day. We go about our often mundane and routine days at a loss and ask God the perennial question, “What is it that you want me to do?” Sometimes we don’t even get this far in our relationship with God and completely omit the question and decide to do whatever we feel like doing.

St. John the Baptist made in abundantly clear what we are to do. He tells us to the tax collector to only collect what is prescribed. He tells the soldier to not practice extortion, don’t accuse anyone falsely, and be satisfied with your wages. He tells the crowds to share what they have with others. It is so very evident what the Lord wants us to do, but we so often fail to do it…why?

Our condition of sinfulness inhibits us from doing what the Lord asks of us. We begin to be burdened by our own clumsiness and ineffectiveness. We fail to do what God’s will is because our selfish orientation. God calls us to something much more abundant than this. God calls us to a deep interior conversion that will lead to an abounding joy. So what are we to do? We are called to convert!

“Conversion” (metanoia) means exactly the opposite: to come out of self-sufficiency to discover and accept our indigence—the indigence of others and of the Other, his forgiveness, his friendship. Unconverted life is self-justification (I am not worse than the others); conversion is humility in entrusting oneself to the love of the Other, a love that becomes the measure and the criteria of my own life.” These are the words of Benedict XVI to some catechist back in 2001 and he’s right on.

We must convert and move from self-sufficiency to entrusting ourselves to the love of the Other. This is so difficult because what we think we must do is do it alone. St. John the Baptist knew this and Christ fulfilled this. The Baptist says, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Yes, we have all shared in a common baptism, but God is calling us to be baptized by the Holy Spirit and fire. Have we the fire of the Holy Spirit within us? Has the Spirit manifested itself within our hearts and set us afire with Divine Love?

This third Sunday of Advent is called “Gaudete Sunday,” or joyful Sunday. The evidence of a joyful person is one that has had the baptism of the Holy Spirit in their life. The fire of God’s love so captures the human heart that we can’t help but radiate a deep interior joy! Joy stands for three things…Jesus, others, and yourself. First, we must love Jesus and put Him at the center of our lives. Second, we must love others and make a gift of ourselves to our neighbors. Lastly, we must allow ourselves to be loved by God. By placing these priorities in our lives, we can come to know that JOY God has called us to.
So what are we to do? We are called to be joy-filled. We are called to convert, and more away from self-sufficiency. What we are to do is put Jesus at the center of our lives, to love others, and allow ourselves to be loved. We are to do exactly what we’ve been expected to do for these past three weeks. To prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ this Christmas.