August 28th

Dear Friends,
Today’s Gospel contains the advice to avoid taking the seat of honor at the table when invited to dinner… this will allow us to avoid getting “bumped” when someone more prominent shows up. Instead, one should sit at a humbler spot, leaving the host the option to invite us to move up to a better seat. I remember being at a dinner where someone was chided for having taken the spot at the end of a long table. “Who do you think you are, seating yourself at the head of the table?” the man was asked. He responded without skipping a beat: “I am too humble to seat myself at the head of the table. This is the foot.”

FYI: I will be away this week and next. I have been brushing up on my German so that I can officiate at a wedding for friends in Germany, and then will make my annual spiritual retreat in Austria (there will be a little vacation time intermingled as well). I am grateful to Passionist Father David Colhour, who will be covering the weekend Masses while I am away. Please make him feel welcome. He has agreed to take a couple of Masses per month moving forward to give me a little space to breathe between Masses once in a while on Sundays. It also gives parishioners a chance to hear homilies from another perspective.

I had dinner with Father Colm a couple of weeks ago and am pleased to report that he is doing well as he begins his first assignment as a priest at St. Alexander in Palos Heights. During his time here he organized and led the First Friday evening adoration, and we ran it for the better part of a year with the idea of gauging interest. While we had some regulars, it seems that the time for this is not yet right. It may be that choosing an evening other than Friday would be better. For now, we will suspend the First Friday devotion. I’ll give some thought to other times to offer adoration that might work better for more people. Confessions at Nativity of Our Lord will continue on First Saturday mornings from 11 to noon (though not in September, as I’ll still be away).

May your week reflect the encounter with Christ
we experienced at Mass today!