We took it off the bulletin, but we
couldn’t take it off the menu. What am I
talking about? Snow, of course. We changed from our winter bulletin cover
last weekend, after a number of people, not limited to the rectory staff, began
to cry out to God and to me for deliverance from even photographs of snow. So our steeple and rosy sky, plus the
portrait of our Patroness, returned to herald spring, or at least express our
hope for it.
Then, wham. The snowfall exceeded predictions, and we all
reverted to our accustomed responses as schools and offices closed, and another
Monday fell to the weather axe. Father
McCabe has one professor he hasn’t seen in over a month because that class
meets only once a week, and those days not lost to (so-called) Spring Break
have fallen before the recurring frozen juggernaut. Fr. McDonell has similarly lost weeks of
certain classes.
I was reading just this morning that
the severity and duration of this winter have combined to kill off a number of
plants that had been thriving locally for years. That explains why my rosemary, usually a
perennial in my herb garden, looked so, well, dead when I stopped to look at it last week. It was on the list of things that usually
survive, but this year have not. Other
victims will be identified when they fail to report for duty as the spring
summons comes to their spot on the roster.
My one consolation is that this winter is supposed to have killed just
as many bad bugs as it did good plants.
Through it all, our church has kept up
operations, not flagging from our duty of giving glory to God under all
circumstances. (Frost and chill, bless
the Lord. Ice and snow, bless the
Lord! Daniel 3) We have not missed a
Mass or confessions yet. The lot and
sidewalk have been clear for anyone who could reach us, and the interior has
been cozy and warm (with the exception of that two-week period in the third
through eighth grade classrooms).
Including the St. Patrick’s Day snow,
we have spent $29,057.50 on snow removal, almost exactly twice our budget. We’ve had excellent snow removal service at a
good price, just a lot of snow. We are
still gauging the extent to which our utility bills have reached new heights
driven by our demand for warmth.
So next
weekend, 29 – 30 March, we will have a second collection to cover winter
expenses in the parish. I would
respectfully request that you offer at
least what a normal Sunday offering would be for your family. I know this winter has brought expenses to
your household too. My hope is that
there was also a reduction in spending in some categories, because the weather
was just too bad to go out and buy or spend.
But I am grateful for your willingness.
As we have begun Lent and the practice
of penance, I find myself counseling people in the confessional that their
difficulty in maintaining charity and cheer in the relationships that surround
them does not reflect a lack in themselves, much less in the grace God
gives. Rather, our irritability, and the
evident defects of those we spend our days with, has been increased to near
unmanageable levels by the combination of enforced enclosure together, and the
reality that everyone’s fuse is short and visage is grim as we all wait for deliverance.
But unlike last month, now it’s Lent,
so there is something we can do with it: offer
it up! And next week when the basket
comes around a second time for help with our parish’s winter expenses, the same
response is called for: offer it up!
Monsignor Smith
