St. Anastasia Roman Catholic Church
Mark My Words

It is hard to believe to that it is has been three years since I arrived here. Time sure does fly when you are having fun. These three years have been the best three years of my life. I learned much about the priesthood, service, and about myself. There are many people that I need to thank but it is impossible to thank everyone. However, I will highlight a few people.

One of my favorite seasons is spring. While it may not always feel like spring outside, we are in it.  It is great to see the flowers bloom; the trees bud and then soon have leaves. It reminds me that even though something may appear dead, there is still life in it. This is a perfect analogy as we celebrate the season of Lent. When we look at our lives we may see areas that appear dead or appear to have stunted growth. When we prune and remove these obstacles that are preventing us from seeing God, we then see His fullness. I encourage everyone to look deep in their lives and remove those things that prevent us from seeing God. If it is sin, go to confession and make your life right with God. During spring we will see the full blooming of flowers. Let us pray we see that in our lives as well.

I would like to thank everyone who purchased a St. Anastasia bumpersticker or attended the St. Anastasia Irish Night. With both of these event we were able to donate almost $2500 to help the World Youth Day Pilgrims. I know they appreciate our help. I would also like to tank the Knights of Columbus for a wonderful meal and Kevin Enright who was the head chef, directing the Knights in meal preperation. A big thank you to the Young Adults who put the event together.

We will be having an informational meeting to kick off a new outreach ministry. It will involve inviting our neighbors to come to St. Anastasia to learn about us and to explore our faith. Many people are just waiting to be invited to come and experience the love of Christ. We are called by Christ to make this invitation. This ministry, Opening Doors to St. Anastasia,  encourages us to do this and gives us the tools to accomplish our goal.  The fist meeting is Saturday, April 2nd from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the parish social hall (enter through the Church doors).  A pizza lunch will be served.

It is hard to believe we are in the first few weeks of Ordinary Time in the Church year. The excitement of Christmas is over. All the decorations are down. It almost feels a little deflating to be in Ordinary Time. That is one of the things to remember, Ordinary Time is not ordinary. The joy of Christmas is still in our hearts as is the joy of Easter. We have to remember that Jesus calls ordinary people to do extraordinary things. We have to be open to the Spirit and let God work in our hearts. We live in the mindset that someone else will do it. I encourage you during this time before Lent to look at your lives. Are you one who is living out the love of Christ, or someone who only does it when it is convenient? Jesus followed the Father all the time to save us. Shouldn’t we return the favor?

Merry Christmas to all!!  It is hard to believe that we are once again celebrating our Savior’s birth and that he came into the world over 2010 years ago.  Time sure flies when you are having fun! Since my childhood Christmas has always been one of my favorite holidays.  While there is always the obvious gift exchanging, the time with family stands out for me.  We all have family traditions that we hold dear and no family has the same exact traditions. One thing that happens as we grow older is that traditions change as life changes.  I know mine have since I have become a priest almost 3 years ago. Nevertheless, the time with family and friends is what is truly important.  Enjoy that time with family and friends and I also invite you to pray for those families who may be in most need this Christmas season.

Summer sure did fly by this year. Over Labor Day weekend, I was able to spend time at my parent’s house. This is always a lot of fun. With Tuesday being my day off, I was able to witness my nephew leave for the first day of school. After chuckling that he had to go to school, I reflected on my school days. Life was so much simpler while we were in school. We had the school work, some may have had an after school activity, or even a job that they worked at. Life was straight forward back then. While I will admit a small piece of me misses school; a larger piece realizes that after over 20 years of school, I am happy with being finished with it. I guess for some people it takes longer to get it right!  While school is finished for many of us; we still learn. So I encourage you to look into one of the Bible studies that are offered, go to the various talks we have, or just read books about our faith. It is one thing to know about God, it is another thing to begin to understand Him and explain Him. So take time to learn about Him and our faith this fall and winter. 

It is hard to believe that today is Palm Sunday and we are at the beginning of Holy Week.  As we know this is the holiest week of the year. This is the time to take great joy in the fact that Jesus Christ died so that we can live. He did not die so that we can all live in a generic way but specifically for each and every one of us to live a life with Him for all eternity. During this week we have many opportunities to take part in the tridiuum. The tridiuum is the Mass of the Lord’s Supper (Holy Thursday), Good Friday Service (Tre Ore service), and Holy Saturday or the vigil Mass. Holy Week ends with Mass on Easter Sunday. I encourage everyone to take part in as many events as you can. See the schedule under Recent News on the Home Page.

As we begin this New Year many of us may have made some New Year’s Resolutions.  If you are like many in the US you have broken them already or you are just about to break them.  Resolutions are a great thing as a way to better improve ourselves as people.  However, as we continue in the first weeks of January, besides taking stock of ourselves physically, maybe it is a great time to look at ourselves spiritually.  This is a golden opportunity to see how we can improve our relationship with God by adding things that may move us into a deeper relationship and by removing those things that are drawing us away from him.  We must use this time in January to figure out a plan for 2010.

The weather is colder, the leaves are changing, and the Lions are still losing football games. That can only mean one thing: fall is here. This year has moved by fast. With the seasons changing, this is a good time to look at our lives and see what type of changes we may need to make. While we are getting ready for winter and the snow, we have to take stock and see where we are in our faith life. Too often bad habits creep in our prayer life and our relationship with God. In the next week or so, I invite all of us to prayerfully look at our lives and see what is good or bad and what is helping or not helping our relationship with Christ. We must do all we can to make our relationship with Christ sound and pray for grace to do it.

Saint of the Week

On September 21st we celebrate the feast of St. Matthew. We know St. Matthew as the author of the first gospel in the bible and also as an Apostle. He was probably born in Galilee and was a tax collector at Capernaum (Mt 9: 9-13) when he was called by Christ to follow Him (Lk 5: 27-32). This is a dramatic scene in the life of Jesus because he calls a tax collector, the lowest of the low in Jewish society, to be an Apostle. This shows that Jesus did not come into the world for the just, but to call sinners to Him. He immediately stood up and left everything behind; his way of life and his attachment to sin. He preached in Jerusalem and then eventually went to Ethiopia and was martyred in Persia (modern Iran). Matthew is recognized in liturgical art by an angel holding a lance, a coin, a pen, or a money box.

“The Occult and the New Age Movement”

Wednesday, September 30th at 7 pm

Fr. Mark Prill will address the threat of the occult and the New Age Movement in our sociey.

As many of you know last weekend we had our annual golf outing to help support the youth ministry here at St. Anastasia. The weather was perfect and all the participants had a lot of fun. Overall it was a resounding success. B.A.S.I.C. is a wonderful escape for teens from the stress of high school and the stress of being teens. It is a time for them to really meet Christ in a more personal way and to meet other like teens who have a burning love for Christ and His Church. If you have any teens or know any teens who would like to join B.A.S.I.C., contact Dave Graves, our Youth Minister, for more details.