Bethune Catholic

So we didn't go up to the parish hall Saturday night for corned beef and cabbage to celebrate the day. We stayed home and sang & danced around the house. Mrs. Curley and number one daughter cooked several potato dishes (scalloped and a souffle I believe.) After all, how often do Irish peasants have corned beef anyway?

Apparantly a (positive) review for "Catholic Laity in the Mission of the Church" has appeared in the March issue of Homeletic and Pastoral Review. Its not a publication I get, but if any of my readers out there do get it, if they could confirm it, I would appreciate it.

Prayer request....Every so often you hear stories about a conversion of someone after a long absence from the Church and after many years of perserverance in prayer by friends and family members. I have seen this happen several times in my life, including a deathbed return to the sacraments a couple years ago. Perserverance seems to be the key. I have a dear friend whose mother needs our Lord. She is dying. Please pray for her and for my friend's family in this time of trial. My kids' prayers are often more effective than my own (their innocence and their perserverance: for over a year two of them prayed every night that the robbers who had held up the local gas station would return the money.)

Finally, Bishop Baker has declared that this year be the 'Year of the Family' in our diocese. He issued a pastoral letter a couple weeks ago urging us to keep the Sunday Holy, to refrain from shopping and labor and to read the Bible as a family and to spend our time on Sundays, first with the Lord and secondly with our families.

Happy feast of St. Joseph! From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune...Oremus pro invicem!