11/8/2013 – Friday of 31st week in Ordinary Time – Romans 15:14-21

      It amazes me how Paul’s letters were written so long ago to the communities of the Early Church, yet there message remains so relevant to us today.  And the Church has changed so much in our own lifetime, hasn’t it?  Father Dan Gallagher, the chaplain at St Dominic Hospital in Jackson, was telling me what life was like as a young priest in our diocese.  He arrived from Ireland more than 50 years ago, and started serving at St Mary parish in Yazoo City. When he arrived in Yazoo City, there were two parishes, and a total of 4 priests and more than 25 nuns who staffed the two schools there that ran from kindergarten to 12^th grade.  When I arrived in Yazoo City, I was the only priest, and I served in a total of 3 different parishes and in two prisons.  How different the reality of the Church is today.  Paul tells the members of the early Christian communities in his letter to the Romans to fill themselves with goodness and knowledge, to admonish one another and to help each other of their journey to holiness.  This is not complicated advice, but it is very practical, common-sense oriented advice.  Even though the world has changed so and the reality facing us as the Catholic Church has changed so much in recent years, we are still to help edify each other on our pilgrimage journey, we are to find ways to nurture each other and to fill ourselves with goodness and knowledge.  May we strive toward this ideal.