Building the household of God remains our Advent theme

The prophet Isiah

Building the Household of God remains our Advent theme this year. In the first week we heard from the prophet Isaiah and his vision of all the nations streaming toward the house of God on God’s mountain (Zion, or Jerusalem).  This week the Word of God speaks of the need for preparation. What does it take to prepare a place for the Household of God? We know in the Christmas story that Mary and Joseph had to find a place for the Christ child to be born. The Church symbolizes this preparation with the empty manger scene in the Christmas crèches that start coming up at this time of year. I would ask you how you are preparing a place for the Lord, a place for the Household of God in your own heart?  In your own household or family? In your neighborhood and community?  Our parish community as the Household of God?

This week

Isaiah presents to us a vision of a peaceful household in which the Lord, the “shoot that has come from the root of Jesse,” is a wise and prudent judge: ” Not by appearance shall he judge,

nor by hearsay shall he decide .”  Then Isaiah presents the vision of peace when the Household of God is full and complete: “Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.” What a vision! Remember that the next time that chaos seems to reign in your house! Ask yourself what you might do to help create that vision of peace!

I am very excited about the results of the joint meeting of the Pastoral and Finance Councils this past November 22. The formation of a Stewardship Committee was approved unanimously! This now gives us the opportunity to begin some real planning and to create a vision for our parish community for these coming years. What will St. Francis of Assisi Parish look like in 2015? Although we know that many events will happen beyond our control, we still know that much is in our hands to create the kind of future we believe we are called to. Let us all put our efforts into Building the Household of God here at St. Francis.

If you haven’t yet responded to our requests for information regarding the upcoming parish directory please do so soon! We’re getting close to presenting information to the publisher. Thank you to all who have already responded. By the way, as of this writing we already have more than 220 people on our Facebook page! Wow! What a great response! Let’s keep moving forward in spreading God’s good news!