TUESDAY TAKES ON A MONDAY HUE...........

Mondays are always rip popping, days of weekly activity in parish life, as getting the week started, and sorting out the pastoral and administrative direction of the week, is required of most pastors, in an orderly addressing of parish needs and responsibilities.  Have a three day weekend, and Tuesdays take on that role, as it has today for me.  Before leaving for my 9 a.m. blood labs, I did my usual Tuesday morning work, preparing Sunday Bulletin copy.  Upon my return to the rectory after having breakfast, I turned to the desk work awaiting me, sorting out and addressing ministerial details.  Getting ready for tonight's meeting of the the Parish-wide Parking Lot Sale Coordinating Committee, as we finalize and prepare for the day of this first annual fundraising event, on Saturday September 17th; and contending with a rather prickly parish ministry situation, being chief among the responsibilities, for the common good of OLOL Parish as a whole, being required of me today.  My pastoral and administrative focus, as a priest of Jesus Christ, and a pastor of the Church, has been, is, and will always be, bringing and keeping the parishes I am assigned to minister to, in full compliance with Gospel Values, and the canonical procedures and diocesan policies, we are wedded to adhere to as a Community of Believers and the People of God.  Whenever an individual or select group of persons put themselves first and or seek to control the ministry, or the administration of the parish, contrary to the common good of the all the members, or seeking to marginalize or pre-empt the properly and canonically appointed Pastor; I am all the more resolved to see that propriety prevails, and the wayward is brought to appropriate resolution.  This is what I mean when I say, "Priesthood is not a Popularity contest".  It is instead a, "Prophetic Responsibility to Serve God's Greater Glory, by Ministering to the Common God of the entire Community of Believers".  As President Harry S. Truman, so aptly stated, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen"...........Fr.  Troy