This Week's Blog: ... Festival Time
St. Patrick’s Waelder Puts On
33rd Edition of Fiesta Guacamole
Before 1965, we attended neighboring Catholic Churches, thinking Waelder St. Patrick’s had services all in Spanish. When we found out they are actually bilingual, we began attending what we now call “our” Eucharistic Center. The old church, built in the late 1920’s, was cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Air was stirred by small fans on tiny shelves. You needed two people to start them, one to flip the switch and the other to flip the fan blades!
A proverb says: “Through one wise man can a city be peopled.” It really was true that through the wisdom of one man we finally were able to build that new church. Our wise man reasoned that if Waelder could go from “dry” to “wet,” our one-day annual festivals could be much enlarged. His efforts brought about that change. In 1977, St. Patrick’s begin its annual Fiesta Guacamole – a 3-day Labor Day weekend celebration. The cerveza and the street dances brought in large crowds.
One of our very first Parade Marshalls was San Antonio Archbishop Patrick Flores. Bishop Patrick, who learned to pick cotton as a boy in Ganado, Texas, shunned our offer to drive him to the parade site. He walked and also shunned the idea of getting into an air-conditioned cab! Indtead, he rode through the parade standing up on a huge flat-bed open trailer, surrounded by screaming youngsters, tossing candy. Three years later, Archbishop Flores was back, this time to bless a brand new St. Patrick Church in downtown Waelder! A great lesson we have learned from Fiesta Guacamole: “It takes a lot of tamales to build a church!” In the 33 years the Fiesta has been going, besides our new church, we have been able to build a new social hall. And last year we refurbished the interior of our 1980 concrete church building on Highway 90. Archbishop Jose Gomez was here to rededicate the changes, July 5, 2009. Mariachi's and a big dinner completed the show.
As we begin Fiesta Guacamole #33 this weekend in Waelder, our Fiesta has shrunk from three to two days. But it still pays the bills. This year’s tamale crew put together 145 dozen in one day! They will be sold along with our traditional Mexican plate. “It takes a lot of tamales to maintain a church!” Come on over. I’m betting they will still be hot when you get here. – Brother Caedfile
145 Dozen in One Day!
Tamale Makers 2010.......The Old Church (1929-1980)
Note: Our daily-reading reflections are made from the readings of each day's liturgy, as posted at Today's Readings. Doubleclick on the day's calendar date and the readings will appear. Since moving from an E-mail to a Web Posting of these commentaries, we do not hear from as many of you as of old. We are posting our E-mail address here. So if you have a reaction, whatever it might be, we invite you as always, send email to John of SBF . Blessings to all. John
September Update: Our daily readings continue this coming week, as we walk through Paul's Letters to the Corinthians and the Gospel of Luke. We will feature two Christian testimonies this month ...that of two sisters-in-law, both from St. Patrick Catholic Church in Waelder. Janie and Rosa, wives of two brothers will share with you what being Christian means to them. We post Janie's witness first; in two weeks, we will exhange hers for Rosa's testimony. Each of us can learn from the other. God bless. Let us keep one another in Prayer.
“Take with you words, and return to the Lord."
Hosea 14:3
Monday, Sept.6: ‘A little yeast’
1 Corinthians 2:1-5; Psalm 119; Luke 4:16-20: Paul asks the Corinthian Christians today: “Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough?” The Apostle is greatly upset at their permissiveness regarding a public sinner in the Community. He requests them to take action swiftly and decisively “in the name of the Lord Jesus.” It is in today’s gospel, however, where we see the startling effects of bad yeast in the hearts of the Pharisees that day in a synagogue where Jesus was teaching.
P>Knowing there is a man there with a withered hand present, these Pharisees “watched Jesus closely to see if he would cure on the Sabbath.” Note: They watched - not in order to praise God when the man was cured - but “so they might discover a reason to accuse him”! They are silent when Jesus asks them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath rather than to do evil, to save a life rather than destroy it?” No answer. When Jesus asks the crippled one to “stretch out his hand,” it is immediately restored. Now we see how deeply the leaven of wickedness has penetrate the hearts of these Jewish leaders. Luke tells us: “But they became enraged and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.” Contrary to everything they know, they themselves are ready “to do evil,” “to take a life” on the Sabbath! Let us pray earnestly for our Church, that the yeast of Jesus’ compassion for the man with the withered hand may leaven “all our dough,” that is, every Christian community on the face of the globe. May this good yeast leaven the whole world.
Tuesday, Sept.7: Touching Jesus
1 Corinthians 2:10b-16; Psalm 145; Luke 4:31-37: Special words to “take with us” today: “Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.” Luke the Physician continues: “And even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.” The setting of this “free clinic,” wherein everyone who comes is healed, is special. Jesus has just chosen his Twelve Apostles after spending the night in prayer on the mountain. Then he “comes down with them to a stretch of level ground.” Here all who come to Jesus, all who “touch him” are cured of their maladies. On this same stretch of level ground, Jesus will preach the beatitudes, “Blessed are you poor” … and so forth.
What does this sequence - healing all who touch Jesus, the beatitudes - say to us? This show of power begins Jesus public ministry; it will end with the sending of the Twelve into the whole world. Isn’t the job of the Twelve, and of their successor, the Church, to teach everyone how to touch Jesus? The touch of which we speak is the touch of faith. It is the touch of Thomas the Apostle who doubted Jesus’ resurrection, then fell at his feet, placed his hand in his side and cried, “My Lord and my God!.” It is the touch of the woman with the issue of blood. Wading through the crowd she reached out to him, having recited her august prayer: “If I but touch the tassel of his garment I will be healed.” (Mark 5:28) When Jesus asks at that moment, “Who touched me?” his disciples remind him the crowd is pressing against him as they walk down the road. Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Let us touch the Master with the kiss of faith, and teach our children to do so also. As a Church let us invite everyone to come and be healed.
Wednesday, Sept. 8: Nativity of the BVM
1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Psalm 33; Luke 4:38-44: As every Catholic school child from the 1940’s knows, BVM stands for Blessed Virgin Mother. Today’s readings speak to her calling as the mother of Jesus. The last verse of our gospel reads: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.” (Quoting the Septuagint version of Isaiah 7:14) It is a verse from Micah, however, that recommends itself to me as “words to take with us” today: “He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the Lord, in the majestic name of the Lord his God.” How many times, in different situations, we see Jesus ‘standing firm in the majestic name of the Lord his God”!
Yet he was so totally human, we read of him, “In the days when he was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death.” (5:7) And he was so totally divine he could walk on the sea. In his ministry, he ‘stood firm’ while being misunderstood by family (Mark 3:21); in the face of the greed of those he served (John 6:26); in the face of incredibly dense disciples (Matthew 17:17); and especially in the face of scribes and Pharisees constantly on the watch for ways to trap him. Who but Jesus could “stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the Lord” in the face of the Roman crucifixion? He stands so firm he rejects Peter’s pitiful sword in the Garden trying to defend him. “I could ask my Father for more than 12 Legions of Angels,” Jesus scolds. Jesus knows that shortly, atop his tomb - “standing firm in the majestic name of the Lord our God.”– he will show the world what it means to be Messiah.
Thursday, Sept. 9: ‘100-fold …and then some’
1 Corinthians 3:18-23; Psalm 24; Luke 5:1-11: For precious words to take with you today, we offer the last verse of our gospel: “Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” My favorite phrase from this canticle of God’s goodness, is “will be poured into you lap.” Jesus answers Peter in a similar fashion. Speaking for the Twelve, Peter raises this issue with Jesus: “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Promising them twelve thrones to sit on in heaven, Jesus adds: “And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:27-29)
Our model in giving, as always, is Jesus, “who came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” For the Messiah, God’s promise through the prophet Isaiah was, “If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life.” (Is53:10) Jesus too receives the “hundred-fold and life everlasting.” In his farewell prayer at the Last Supper, in this prayer four times Jesus refers to his disciples as “gifts” from the Father. Praying that wherever he is in heaven we will be with Jesus, he says, “Father, they are your gift to me.” (John 17:24) Our brothers and sisters from the Old Covenant were warned by God: “No one shall appear before me empty-handed.” (Exodus 23:15) May we each ask ourselves in all sincerity: “What things shall I fill my hands with as gifts to God, as work for the Kindgom?” In our answer, let us remember the lesson we started with here today: It is paraphrased in another place this way: “Consider this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” (2 Corinthians 9:6)
Friday, Sept. 10: ‘Woe is me’
1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Psalm 37; Luke 5:33-39: Words for us to take from Paul: “Woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel!” Willingly or unwillingly, Paul tells us, “I have been entrusted with a stewardship.” If only today, we, as Church, could feel this same sense of urgency, Paul’s words will be a gift to us. Paul’s utter devotion to his task is a precious. In fulfilling his charge, this tent-maker Apostle, goes the extra mile. By exercising his trade (in addition to his preaching), he is able to say: “I offer the Gospel free of charge.” As an Apostle, he had a call on those to whom he preached for “room and board.”
In our passage from Luke, Jesus reminds us: “No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher.” Before Paul, came Jesus. Before Paul “offered himself as a living sacrifice,” Jesus came, preached, wept and died, died and rose. “Woe is us” had he NOT chosen to do so! Now, with the powerful witness of both Paul and Jesus, can we not say as a Church, “Woe is us if we do not preach the Gospel,” for a stewardship has been entrusted to us too. How much more effectively could we exercise it today, if – as different churches – we would join hands and heart to fulfill the commission we have received. Finally, what stewardship has God given me as an individual? What tasks do I have yet to do in this world prompting me to pray, “Woe is me” if I do not do these things?
Sharing Faith
With Family
Important to Me
By Janie of St. Patrick's, Waelder
I’m glad I belong to Jesus Christ because being a Christian has been such a blessing in my life. I learned to be a follower of Christ at a very young age. I believe in the teachings of Christ, his forgiveness and his promise of salvation. And being a Christian gives me the opportunity to share my faith with my children and grandchildren.
What got me into following Christ...I would say that I have my mother to thank for introducing me to the Christian Life. My mother always spoke to me about having Christ in my life. She encouraged me to attend Mass and CCD (Religious Ed). She is the one who taught me how to pray.
I learned the basic prayers in Spanish and later on I learned them in English. I taught CCD while I was in High School. I have always been involved with the Church. I cannot imagine what it would be like not being a Christian.
I am so grateful for my mother for showing me the Christian Life.
What keeps me going in the Christian way of life...
I enjoy being involved with the Church and serving the Lord in various ways. Attending Mass and listening to the word of God has always been important to me. Why? Because the words I hear there encourage me to keep on being faithful. Having the opportunity to sing in the choir is wonderful; I love singing our beautiful Christian songs.
Also, having a loving and caring family is very important to me and that keeps me going as a Christian. I want to set a good example for them so that they can always follow the right path in life.
Editors Note: Janie sings in our St. Patrick Young Adult Choir, and heads up our Vacation Bible School program.
Pancho, the Talking Donkey, says: Come back soon, ya hear!
Pancho
In honor of the PBS Detective of yesteryear, Brother Cadfael (say 'CAD-file'), we have adopted his persona for our blogs. Brother Cadfael also reminds me of my very favorite monk of yesteryear -- the Venerable Bede (672-735). Fr. Bede loved to study, teach and write about the word of God. He was a celebrated historian; his book on the Church in England is still being read and studied. He was interested in the natural sciences. This humble monk never travelled very far from his Northumbrian, England Monasteries of Sts. Peter and Paul.
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