TELL ME AGAIN, WHY ARE WE DOING ALL THIS?

Fr. Gene Schroeder, Pastor

We�ve just finished our summer social. Now we are gearing up for our parish rummage sale. The PTO has made dumplings, and is selling candy and SCRIP cards, and is getting ready for the Fall Festival. The Men�s Club has completed their Corn Hole Tourney and is selling chances on a Big Green Egg. Soon they will be making burgoo and homemade sausage. The Altar Society will be making kuchens and then will be making homemade dressing. The Knights of St. John are getting their booth ready for the fall festival. School is back in session for almost a month and the learning activities and extracurricular activities are in full swing. Our Sunday Morning Religious Education programs have begun. And the list goes on. A whirlwind of activities to be sure.

In the midst of all this, we ask ourselves again� why are we doing all this? We have some immediate answers of course...we�re making money so that we can provide programs for the school which helps children to learn, or we provide money for the parish so that we can continue to have a place to pray and learn about our faith. All of this is true, but once again, why are doing all this?

Taking a big step back may lead us to say that ultimately we want to do all these things so that we can do good and go to heaven. But then we have to ask...so what do we do when we all get to heaven? Did Jesus really come just to get us all to be able to go to heaven? To be fair, much of what we have been taught and much of what the church has been about seems to be geared to getting everyone to go to heaven. We Catholics are not alone in this. In many of the other faith traditions we are familiar with, there is a constant call �to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.� At first glance, that doesn�t sound like a bad idea and if fact, there is good in it. But I don�t think Jesus was primarily interested in getting lots of folks to just get to heaven. Rather, Jesus was about teaching people how to live in the world with all of its messiness and pain and brokenness. Jesus is all about showing us the way to be transformed in our lives so that we can bring life and hope to our world.

To be a Catholic is not primarily about believing in certain doctrines and dogmas. Believing that Jesus is the Son of God or that Mary is the Mother of Jesus or any of the other doctrines of our faith, may be a good thing. But just believing in doctrines will not feed your soul or help you find meaning in your life. To feed our soul, we need to do the hard work of transformation. It means not just having our minds transformed, but more especially our hearts changed so that we can be the heart of Jesus in our world. This means learning how to forgive, learning how to be compassionate, learning how to trust again especially when we have been hurt. It means learning how to pay attention to everything that happens in our life and allow it all to teach us. It means allowing the pain of our lives to teach us and help us grow.

Our purpose is not just to do as many good things as we can in the hopes that this will get us to heaven, but rather to learn how to be Jesus in our world�.to be forgiveness, and trust and hope and so to bring life to our world.

Come check out all the great bargains at our

Giant Parish Rummage Sale

Friday, September 10 4-7 pm

Saturday, September 11

7 am --Noon

$2 bag sales begins at 10 am

Food and drinks will be available each day

Freshly baked kuchens will be sold as well

Click here for more information

Buy SCRIP.....and make money

for your favorite charity

The St. Joe School PTO is giving you the chance to make money for your favorite charity whenever you purchase SCRIP. You can use SCRIP to buy food, gas, medicines, clothes, household needs�.the list is endless. And buying SCRIP cards to local restaurants, book stores and the like is a great way to buy gifts for those �hard to buy for� folks. They make great birthday, anniversary and Christmas gifts!

Now, each time you purchase SCRIP, you can designate 40% of the profits to be given to the charity of your choosing�Haiti, our local food pantry, the church in Vladivostok, Habitat for Humanity, Birthright, Right to Life, or even to local collections for the benefit of families in need.

Here�s how it works. Each time you purchase SCRIP, you will be asked to designate where you want your profit incentive to go. The SCRIP committee will take care of the details of sending the check to them. It�s that simple. And, the more times you purchase SCRIP cards, the more money you can be making for your favorite charity.

Buy SCRIP after any of the weekend Masses

or through the school office (8am - 2pm)

Monday through Friday

Interested in knowing what you can purchase through SCRIP?

click here for a SCRIP order form

Get your chance to win

and $200 worth of gas from the St. Joe Mini Mart

contact the Parish Office (812) 963-3273

Drawing to be held on October 24