Last Saturday we celebrated our first in-person Auction since before the Covid pandemic. It was so wonderful to attend such an awesome event with nearly 500 parishioners enjoying each other’s company. It was the best year ever! Saint Simon community, you are amazing beyond belief! Thank you to all who came and supported by buying a ticket, making a donation, underwriting expenses, bidding on items and buying raffle tickets. Every amount counts and supports our Parish and outreach causes. I have to say most incredible of all were the committee of women who prepared and ran this event. I witnessed them working diligently in the parish day after day, week after week getting everything ready. They are simply astounding! I want to acknowledge and publicly thank them: The co-chairs Melissa Moody and Autumn Vavoso and their core team Viju Sharma, Cathy Raymond,  Nikki Andrews, Jelena Grizelj, Yvonne Spencer, Marie Dorcich, Deana Bligh, Jaime Chapin, Penny Osorio, Sharon Head, Tori Reyanga, Kelly Mibach, Christina Montalvo, Donna Mohammadi, Rachel Haydon, and special thanks to Maria Crowder and Julian Scuri for MC’ing the live auction on the night. There were so many more working behind the scenes. They all worked unbelievably hard and were so much fun to be with over these last few weeks. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your commitment and all your hard work.

 

It is hard to believe we begin our Lenten journey this week, on Ash Wednesday. This year we have adopted the theme “Keeping Time…Sacred.” Lent is a time to do the annual spring cleaning of our hearts, and it is a time to look at the priorities of our lives and ask some deeper questions about how we are spending our time and how we can  use our time for a better purpose. Let’s try to take the time to get ourselves out of the autopilot we often find ourselves in because of the busyness of our lives.

 

Recently I finished a book that has changed the way I view life. It is called “Die With Zero” by Bill Perkins. I have referenced this in my bulletin articles over the past few weeks, but I want to dive deeper into some of its themes as they relate to our Lenten journey together. While I do not agree with everything he says, there are some powerful insights I want to share with you. The goal of the book is to live a more fulfilled life in accordance with our values. 

 

Perkins maintains there are three factors that need to be in good balance for us to live a fulfilled life and these factors change over the course of our life. They are health, wealth, and time. My father used to say that wealth without health is not much use so take care of yourself and stay healthy. Good advice indeed and one that Bill Perkins would espouse for sure, but Perkins would go one step further because if we have health and wealth but no time to spend either, it is of not much use. 

 

Let me give you one example from the book. Warren Buffet,  one of the wealthiest men in the world with over $100 billion, is 92 years old and still working as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. If I offered you the opportunity to switch positions with him, would you do it? Your life for his life, with all its trappings and his age. Most people would not switch because they wouldn’t want the headache of all that money and wouldn’t want to be working at 92 years old! You see, even though he has all that money, he doesn’t have time on his side!

 

In other words, we need to be fully aware of all three factors to gain fulfillment in our lives and timing is critical. While none of us know exactly how much time we have left to live, we do know we have this moment of time right now. 

 

This Lent I invite you to journey with us and take some time to reflect on your life. I want to challenge you to a couple of things. On Ash Wednesday we will be distributing small stones and invite everyone to take one home. It serves as a reminder for you on your own journey of Lent for the next 40 days. Please place it somewhere where you will see it every day to remind you of your Lenten commitments. Put it on your prayer desk, kitchen counter, bathroom counter, or in your car, purse or pocket. Every time you see it, be reminded of how precious your time is. Ask yourself some of these questions:

  • How much time do I spend with my spouse, children, parents, or friends?
  • When I do spend some time with them, am I creating good memories for myself and them so these memories can pay memory dividends for years to come?
  • Do I spend some time praying and growing my friendship with Jesus and God?
  • How can I be a better steward of my time as my precious commodity?

 

Every year the Church offers us a Lenten journey as a time of conversion. It is a time to reflect more deeply on the value of life while giving  us three priorities to act upon: praying, fasting and almsgiving to hone our listening skills. But for any of these to be effective we have to consciously make time for them. So maybe the first thing we can do is commit some time to prayer and reflection.. I invite you to begin each day with a few minutes of prayer and examination of your time.  Use the “Give Us This Day” prayer booklet or “Holy Moments” book, or use one of the many cell phone prayer apps.

 

This Lent I also invite you to join us at daily Mass and bring along  your family, friends and neighbors to join us. We have daily Masses at 6:30 am and 8:30 am every day. Perhaps sharing these 40 days of Lent in prayer and reflection with us can be a gift you give yourself to grow closer to God.  

 

 I invite you to join us for our Lenten events:

  • Stations of the Cross on Fridays at 6:00 pm in the Church  followed by Soup Supper in Spooncer Hall on February 24, March 3, 10, 17, 24 & 31
  • Men’s Lenten Faith Sharing group on Thursday mornings 7:00 am-8:15 am in Spooncer Hall on February 23, March 2, 9, 16, 23 & 30 discussing the book “Die with Zero”
  • Lenten Retreat, Keeping Time … Sacred with John Angotti and I on March 13, 14 and 15, 7:00 -8:30 pm. On Monday and Tuesday we will reflect on the gift of time and how we can be better stewards of our time. 
  • Taize Prayer Service will close the retreat on Wednesday, March 15th at 7:00 pm with several members of the community sharing four-minute reflections on their personal witness stories of times of conversion and discipleship. 

 

So come to Mass on Ash Wednesday (6:30am, 8:30am or  7:00pm) and let’s begin our Lenten journey of faith by keeping time…sacred.

 

God Bless,

 

Fr. Brendan