Gospel Reflections for September 10 2017
School has started!
We have another year of full enrollment at St. Bruno and especially glad to welcome our new families!
Do you remember your first day of school? Social scientists believe that day is more important than most people think. For the first time, you spent a lot of time without your family and in the company of hundreds of children and adults you did not know at all.
Some students discover that behavior that they considered normal in the intimate setting of their home just does not go over too well at school. They receive all kinds of new behavioral guidelines from teachers, staff, and even fellow students. They are a major factor in molding behavior to fit correctly into new and larger social groups, from school, to college, and then finally to the world.
Each new group modifies our behavior. If the group is healthy and morally straight, it can guide even troubled youth to much better behavior. However, a bad group can make healthy children turn for the worse. In a sense …we slowly become the group we join!
That is strong motivation for a school or family, or parish, to make sure everything we do helps young people grow up well. You can be proud that our excellent school faculty and staff and supportive parents together provide an environment for young people to discover just how to behave appropriately in this great big world. We prepare our students for success and happiness both here …and in every stage of their future life.
The Gospel today affirms the importance of good-willed people to correct each other’s behavior …and how to do it well. (see my article on Gossip and Rumors) A healthy parish can turn anyone toward a happier path.
I remember years ago hearing some challenging advice from friends that helped me change some bad habits I had developed. I was glad they respectfully and courageously spoke up! I would rather know how I might be hurting someone than remain ignorant and cause even bigger problems, so I was deeply grateful for their help.
Jesus founded a Church that follows His example closely and reconciles troubled people back to healthy relationships. We start out in families and schools that helpfully guide our behavior. Let us model our behavior on the Lord …for success and happiness now and every day of our life.
God Bless!
Fr. Dave
Quoting you here, Fr. Dave:
“I remember years ago hearing some challenging advice from friends that helped me change some bad habits I had developed. I was glad they respectfully and courageously spoke up! I would rather know how I might be hurting someone than remain ignorant and cause even bigger problems, so I was deeply grateful for their help.”
This means so much to me in my life. And I look for it. Thank you.
You are very welcome!
Catholic education is soooooooooooooooooo beautiful!! I taught kindergarten for 20 years at St. Jude and loveeeeeeed it for our motto was to love, to Care, to Share,!!! Live life as Jesus did !! Be a giver!! Make the world beautiful!!!Loveeeeeeeeeeed it!!! And now in the present I also love the saying” Be the difference you want to see in the world!!”!! Every day is a miracle of love and if we can do one lovely deed a day to make someones life happier, how beautiful is that!!! I learned that in my Catholic education especially through my parents , through my catholic schooling and Marymount College!! Look at the beautiful people helping in Texas and in Florida!!! Love them!!!Love the Gospels teaching to be open to consructive help and be for others!!!We must be open to becoming the precious person God created us to be!!! Loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee our precious Faith!!! And thank you for guiding us sooooooooooooo beautifully!!!
Loveeeeeeeeee, Franca and Dick
What a wonderful vocation you had to teach Kindergarten. Such an important year!
Your commentary brings to mind the show “My Fair Lady.” It illustrates how our environment with other people can change our lives. Eliza Doolittle comes from a deprived background and has a poor command of the English Language. Henry Higgins is able to teach her to speak “King’s English”, which changes her life. But it is not only her diction that changes…she becomes more intimately involved with life.
Certainly, as you say, we must model our lives on that of Christ if we are to be happy. We need to choose an environment of people who are dedicated to follow Christ’s teaching.
Thanks for referencing “My Fair Lady.” It is one of my all time favorite plays, and with a powerful message of transformation.
Dear Father Dave,
In the wake of and advent of so much destruction, it’s always “grounding” to read your messages of God’s love with subsequent results of hope, faith, love, and change when change is desperately needed. Thank you so much for your weekly guidance forum.
God bless….
Kathleen
You are very welcome!
A good friend is like a four-leaf clover hard to find and lucky to have.
An Irish Proverb:
Great Irish saying!