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April 26, 2024This pas
t week, I received a long and great email from one of our parishioners who was asking about the lawns and gardens. After answering a few concerns, I saw that they were already getting to the project of the gardens and lawns here and at St. James. One of the more important works is to prune. It is the practice of cutting off dead branches or cutting back the lower flowers or branches. In the case of trees, it is done to allow more growth. Last fall, as one of the last projects before the snow began, we had the trees pruned to allow for safety, i.e., no dead branches to come down under the weight of the snow, and to remove completely one of the trees that was in the last stages of dying.
Pruning is also something that we can do with our lives. My mother called it Spring cleaning. We were to clean our rooms, put away things that we were no longer using, and donate clothes that no longer fit or toss out those that were no longer useful. We also had behavior pruning (although they called it parental correction).
Pruning can also be a spiritual practice and when we look at ourselves and the community, we can see that we sometimes need to prune some behaviors or attitudes in order to grow in our faith. We certainly have seen that in the history of the church. By pruning or cutting and letting go of past practices that no longer are helpful (mass in Latin for example) we can see that there is growth in the level of participation in the church, We can see that if we “prune” attitudes and behaviors in our lives, there can be growth and positive change. (The Lenten journey can be about this too.)
Much of the pruning that we do here is based on the observations and experience of the gardeners and it is the same with Jesus and us and with the church. We rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us and to continue to help us grow and move towards imitating Jesus more closely each season.
I will close this little reflection with the sad news that our Rose of Sharon tree, located to the left of the entrance from the parking lot, will be removed. It has been tended to by arborists but appears to have died. We will look into a suitable beautiful replacement.
Congratulations to the two couples who were married in the church (IC) this week: the new Mr. and Mrs. David and Andrea Linehan and Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas and Laura Pascucci. Welcome to our new sister in faith Wilhelmina Robichaud. Wilhelmina was baptized at St. James Church.
The Catholic Appeal numbers continue to improve. So far, we have achieved 74% of our goal of $50,200.00. We have surpassed our assessment (8% of our total Sunday collection income) of $28,083.00. Thanks to all who have been so generous. I am confident that we will continue to our goal.
Thanks also to Deb Adair for her leadership this year,
Peace,
Father Murray
Building news. I am pleased that the work on the church continues to move along. This week the masons moved to the front of the church. They hope to continue to work despite the rain that has been so consistent lately. They project that the job will be finished by June 1.
In other news, there is movement in the schools as they continue to start the project of renewing the buildings for housing. The first steps are to clean the building of leftover equipment and then do asbestos remediation. They are removing old boilers and other infrastructure that will make room for more modern and efficient systems.