It's early Sunday evening and I've just been catching up on what's going on in the blogosphere which is one of my favourite ways of relaxing at the end of the weekend.
I try not to take anything for granted and I do appreciate how fortunate we are to have a comfortable home, loving children, employment etc. etc. but it has never really occurred to me quite how fortunate we are with our parish. There is a theme underlying some blogs of discontentment, of a yearning for certain things that are apparently not readily available to all.
I had not realised that it is fairly unusual to have regular Rosary and Benediction, for example, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament several days a week and frequent Confession. Is it really very unusual, I wonder, or are those blogs that I've been looking at describing some sort of minority ghetto where such devotions are not practised?
I thought everyone was encouraged to go to Confession regularly and have reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. Maybe I've just been taking things for granted after all. At Mass tomorrow, during the silence after Holy Communion (which I gather is not kept universally) I will try and remember to give thanks for the blessings we receive as members of our parish where everything possible is done to encourage us in our spiritual development. Thanks of course to our parish priest.
2 comments:
I like to visit the Catholic Blog world too, and I am quite envious. I live in a small town in Canada. Our Parish is a mission Parish so we rent the Anglican Church for Mass on Sunday. Other than that we have the Rosary on Wednesday nights during May and October and if we want more we have to go into a nearby town. We moved here several years ago and I miss all the extras that you get in a larger Parish. You are very lucky to have all that you do.
Hi Miss Ellen E
Unfortunately, we do take things for granted. I know of a parish that had a hard working and holy parish priest. The parish was a real "family". The spiritual life of the parish was, with the priest's encouragement and example, vibrant. Then a new P P arrived and it has been downhill ever since. It is important for all parishioners to pull their weight but the leadership MUST come from the parish priest! It is a stark lesson to us that we should cherish the advantages a parish provides because you never know when it will just melt away.
Thanks Miss Ellen E and God bless you.
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