News Around the Parish
St. Brendan’s Got Talent – why see talent shows on TV when you can see them live here at St. Brendan’s? The annual St. Brendan’s Talent show will be on this Thursday, February 27 @ 7pm in the Church Hall. Do come early and see St. Brendan’s Got Talent!
Faith Sharing Book Club – Last year we started the faith sharing book club and it was wonderful. Besides reading inspiring and challenging faith stories, we also had the opportunity to share with each other our thoughts and reflections. It was wonderful for me to see how each of us struggles to live our faith authentically within the context of our lives. The Book Club planning team this year explored the possibility of reading different books but came down unanimously on Pope Francis’ “Joy of the Gospel,” because we thought it would be a good way for us to get to know our new Pope, to get a sense of how he thinks and what’s important to him. We’ll be having sign-ups this weekend and next. We’ll have 3 sessions, Thursday mornings from 9:30-11am, Thursday evenings from 7:30-9pm, and Saturday mornings from 10-11:30am, beginning the week of March 9 and ending in 4 weeks on the week of March 30. If none of these times work for you and you’d like to read the book yourself, we’ve ordered extra copies and they’ll be available at the sign-up table. But I encourage you, if you can, to join us in one of these sessions. It’s only for 4 weeks and it’s a good way to share our own faith and to hear and learn from others.
Save these Dates – This year for Lent, we’ll be having 2 retreats for the Parish. One is for married couples, on the evening of Thursday March 27 from 7-9pm, entitled Marriage on Fire, offered by the Archdiocese. The guest speakers are Greg and Julie Alexander, who founded a ministry specifically for married couples. Years ago, when they were on the brink of divorce, they approached their parish priest who challenged them to live their faith authentically. In so doing, they found that by putting God first in their lives, God helped save their marriage and now they want to share their blessing with others. The 2nd Lenten Retreat for the Parish will be on Saturday, March 29 from 9am-2pm by Archbishop Emeritus George Niederauer on Pope Francis’ apostolic letter, “Joy of the Gospel.” For those who haven’t had time to read the Pope’s book and even for those who have, this should be a stimulating topic as we reflect on how to live the gospel joyfully in our lives. The challenge is true, even for me, as I get burdened by tasks, to remember to live the moment, live our faith, live our blessings joyfully so that we may be a blessing to others.
Fr. Dan
