Our Most Recent Visitor: Below Joel Davidson takes a picture of the Reynolds family. (back from left to right) Mark, Hugh, Joan, Anthony and dog. Walter is in the front row. Both Anthony and Walter are altar servers at Holy Rosary. Joan home schools all three boys.
Our Next Visitor: Father Tom Lilly is expected to arrive in Dillingham Friday, the 10th of December. Father Tom and I went to the seminary in Mount Angel together and he has never been to Bristol Bay. He plans to spend a few days here flying around the Great Alaskan Bush and visiting all of you.
First Communion: I would like to start meeting with those who would like to receive First Communion. Let us plan on next week after Mass for the first meeting. All those interested please mark your calendars. We will plan to actually have those receive First Communion sometime in September.
Gospel: (Please see Homily Below) The first line in the Gospel this coming Sunday is, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” How are you preparing for your retirement? Have you ever thought about investing in the stock market? How about investing in God Stock? God Stock is much more lucrative than the financial markets.
My Evaluation and Vacation: After spending five years in the Alaskan Bush, I have asked the Archdiocese to pay for a thorough evaluation of myself. They accepted and offered to pay. I will be gone three weeks in August. The first week I will spend in DC getting the evaluation. The evaluation consists of a physical examination, clinical interview, psychosocial history interview, spiritual assessment, Psychological evaluation, and Neuropsychological evaluation. It will end with an evaluation feedback session. After, as I do every year, I will spend two weeks at Carolina Beach with Eric and his wife. Eric is the guy who introduced me to the Catholic faith. I will leave August 5th and return to Dillingham August 27. Mass or Communion Service will go on as usual.
Prayers: Please pray for Josh Ingram’s fast recovery. Josh is an altar server at Holy Rosary. He fell off the back of a four-wheeler and cracked his head open. He seems to be stable and doctors think he will recover. He was Medi-vacked out of Dillingham on Saturday to the Alaska Native Hospital in Anchorage.
Have a great week and please also PRAY FOR SOME SUNSHINE! Fr. Scott
HOMILY for the 18th Ord C 114 DLG 2010, Luke 12: 13-21
What I have here is a paper that says I own stock in Global Telecom Inc. It is for my retirement. Ever thought about investing in the stock market?
Stocks in general can be risky. The price of stock depends on the stability of the company, how innovative the manager is, and how good the product is: the better the company, the better the stock. The better the stock, the more valuable it becomes.
As Christians, it is important that we try to make some good investments for our retirement. Having a retirement account helps us to continue God’s work after we stop collecting that monthly paycheck. Stocks are not for everyone. Other great retirement options are mutual funds, real estate, and annuities.
Here are some other pieces of paper: Alter Server, Reader, and Confirmation certificates. Notice I put them in protective covers. I feel these are much more valuable than these stock certificates.
These certificates I received from the Catholic Church show my investment in God. When I invest in the stock market I receive certain benefits. I get dividends. I get more money when the stock increases. I receive some long and short-term capital gains…all help to increase my retirement account. But there is risk.
When I invest in God there are numerous benefits without risk. By investing in God I receive forgiveness of sins, peace, and hope. As for long-term capitol gains…how about eternal life!
Although there is no risk when investing in God, there is a price. The price of God Stock is to love thy neighbor, attend Sunday Mass, forgive others, and obey the 10 commandments.
The price might seem a little high now. But how much do you think God Stock will cost on Judgment day. The more we invest in God, the richer our lives will be, the more peace we will find, and the closer we will be to perfect happiness.
And believe me; our investment in God can increase. It increases when we pray for others, donate our time, talent, and money to a charitable cause, and make good choices based the moral teachings in the bible.
We will always be rich if we trust and invest in what is above. Put another way, if you desire to be truly rich, store up treasure in heaven.
One thing we should all take a good look at is what we have invested in. All of us have invested in possessions. Here is what God is calling us to do with them:
Be good stewards. Use what we have to honor and glorify God. Here are just a few examples: (1) create a relaxing, tasteful home. Use this home to invite others to come over. Show them Christian Love and share the Gospel. (2) Use wealth to buy more time instead of things, in order to serve God and others in some voluntary way. (3) Here is a tough one, go through all of your possessions, thank God for every one of them, and then offer them back to God. This may make us feel we should dispose of something. We may be called to use it in a different way.
Whatever happens, you will be richer in spirit as a result (539 Words).
Luke 12: 13-21
Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me." He replied to him, "Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?" Then he said to the crowd, "Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one's life does not consist of possessions." Then he told them a parable. "There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, 'What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?' And he said, 'This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, "Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!" But God said to him, 'You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?' Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God."
Ecclesiastes 1: 2; 2: 21-23
Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! For here is a man who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and to another, who has not labored over it, he must leave his property. This also is vanity and a great misfortune. For what profit comes to a man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun? All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation; even at night his mind is not at rest. This also is vanity.
Colossians 3: 1-5, 9-11
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory. Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and un-circumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all.
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