Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

       With our commemoration of the Baptism of Christ we bring our Christmastide celebrations to a close and begin Ordinary (or counted) Time for eight weeks.  Then Lent will be upon us.  Happily, this year Easter is later and so we have time to catch our breath before we begin the disciplines of Lent.  Just because we take down our trees and put away lights and ornaments doesn’t mean we pack away Christmas for another year.  Rather we continue to mull over the graciousness of God’s gifts to us and grow daily in appreciation of His Presence in our lives.

     Look at the graciousness the Lord offers in today’s Gospel, the first of His many signs/miracles.  Surely our Lord is not an advocate of inebriation but He does provide a copious amount of wine so that a young new couple does not suffer embarrassment. And we hope that the celebrators were moderate in their consumption, but there is indeed more to the story here. It is a reminder to us that God lavishes His goodness upon us.  It is only an ungrateful heart that fails to recognize this truth.  Unceasingly we raise our thanks to God because ultimately He knows what is best for us and too often we tell Him what we think is best for us.  Sometimes this could be to our own detriment and we do not even realize it.  Perhaps one of the best prayers we could say is simply: “whatever You want Lord”  That brief expression could be very easy or extremely difficult and that is the crux of our spiritual lives.  Why?  Because of the consequences it brings and are we ready for the Lord’s response?

    In the next several weeks we will be hearing from the Knights of Columbus  through this message.  These men accomplish a great deal of good for our parish and community and yet they are very reluctant to “toot their horn”.  I have asked them to take this opportunity to do so in order that more men and families understand what they are all about.  Kindly need their message and hopefully more men in our parish will come to inquire and find their place amongst this rank of good men.

With Blessings,

Father Langan