CELEBRATING THREE YEARS OF RETIREMENT

 




IT'S A LIE! 
 DON'T BELIEVE IT!  
IF YOU DO, YOU WILL BE MISERABLE! 


INSTEAD, SEE WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR OTHERS!

SANTA CLAUS SCHEDULED TO VISIT THE ISLANDS!

IT'S NOT "MARGARITA TIME" JUST YET, SANTA!
SO GET OUT OF THAT HAMMOCK AND GET BACK TO WORK! 

We have a whole lot of toys and goodies to deliver to the kids - nine boxes in all!

Saturday, I mailed nine boxes of great toys, candy and even a few useful items like tooth brushes, toothpaste, a few new and used clothes, pens and pencils, backpacks and anything else small enough to stuff in the cracks and crevices between the toys. They were sent to Miami by USPS to be flown over to St. Vincent by Amerijet.

The boxes should have plenty of time to get there before I arrive in the islands December 11 to help Santa hand them out to the kids at St. Benedict Children's Home and Bread of Life Children's Home on December 16. We have tried to make this their best Christmas ever! 

I had a whole lot of support from my friends for this project. I could not have done it without their compassionate responses. A special thanks to Tim Tomes for working his connections. 

I really enjoyed finding bargains and just the right toy for each child on the two lists sent to me by Sisters Nyra Ann and Sister Zita. I am very excited about being there this year when Santa hands out these toys.

Besides the two orphanages mentioned above, we are also helping the diocese host simple Christmas parties for children on the islands of St. Vincent, Bequia, Mayreau, Canouan and Union - all islands with Catholic parishes in the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. 

Along with the toys, there are lots of new toothbrushes donated by DELTA DENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY and tubes of tooth paste donated by some generous friends. Other practical gifts were squeezed into the boxes. For instance, there are several inflatable balls, coin purses and personal Band-Aid packets donated by the NORTON HOSPITAL SYSTEM with their logo on them. We even included a handy pump to keep them inflated - one for each children's home.  Because the sun is so bright, we sent a supply of plastic sunglasses with the R J MISSION PROJECTS logo. Since it is illegal to send alkaline batteries through the mail, we sent some money to buy a supply locally. We included some gift bags and a Santa hat for each child. I hope we have thought of everything.  

I WANT TO THANK ALL OF YOU WHO WERE SO GENEROUS TO THIS PROJECT. 

If it slipped your mind, it's still not too late for me to send down some cash to cover the cost of snacks and refreshments for all seven Christmas parties. Then we will be finally done for this year.

If you are interested in helping me finish off these Christmas projects with snacks and refreshments, send your tax-deductible check before December 8. I'm going down on December 11.

Make the check out to:

 ST. BARTHOLOMEW CHURCH - SVG MISSION FUND 
and send it to me. 

Rev. Ronald Knott

1271 Parkway Gardens Court

#106

Louisville, KY 40217 

STAY TUNED FOR PHOTOS FROM THE ISLANDS IN FUTURE BLOG POSTS.  SEE SANTA  AND HIS HELPERS IN ACTION. 

SOME THINGS TO REMEMBER ON "A BAD DAY."

Sometimes we wonder if it is the light at the end of the tunnel or the lights of a train barreling through the tunnel towards us?




This has been so true in my life. What about your?


Remember! You might be giving up a day too soon!



"Impossible things just take a little longer."
Philo T. Farnsworth inventor of TV



Sometimes 51% faith and 49% fear is just enough to get us through!

ALL OF US NEED TO CLEAN UP OUR ACTS

AT SOME POINT, WE ALL DESERVE THIS AWARD



They preach one thing and practice another.

Matthew 23

We are used to thinking of Jesus as “meek and humble of heart,” “hugger of children” and “comforter of the afflicted.” So it’s a little more than unsettling to see Jesus throwing a fit, but he is really steamed in this gospel story. He is letting it rip, and the people he is ripping are not the simple ordinary people and their sins, but the fakes and phonies of the religious establishment who abused simple believers with their of misuse of religious power and their obsession with titles, robes and personal status. This long chapter is stinging with focused criticism. He calls them “fools,” “blind guides,” “a nest of snakes,” “white washed tombs,” “lust-filled frauds,” to name a few!

As a card-carrying member of the religious establishment, I am always conscious that the most sustained criticism in the whole of scripture is not directed to your side of the pulpit, but to my side of the pulpit. For that very reason, I go to great pains to include my own sins and failing when I talk about those of others.  This passage alone is enough to keep every priest and minister humble!  All of us ought to have a copy of it pasted to our bathroom mirrors so that we can be reminded of it every time we put on a collar.

One of the things that is painfully obvious in the recent sexual abuse scandal is the amount of anger that was unleashed at priests and bishops who have harshly condemned the sexual sins of others, while holding onto their own dark secrets. Father Nerinckx, founder of the Sisters of Loretto, put it this way, “Those who make the rules should also be the first to keep them!”  Those who are angry can, I am sure, resonate with chapter 23 of this gospel!

I think people expect us to set a good example, to be what we claim to be and do a good job, but I don’t think people expect us to be perfect. It occurs to me that it is not failures, but hypocrisy, that drives people crazy. When a former president was exposed for his indiscretions, the Speaker of the House was loudly condemning him, only to be driven out of office himself for having an extra marital affair.  The famous televangelist Jimmy Swaggart used to draw great crowds ranting and raving about the evils of sexual promiscuity, only to be arrested with a prostitute himself.  I knew a preacher in southern Kentucky who ranted and raved on the radio about “all the sex on TV and in films.” He even staged a big bonfire in front of his church to burn TVs, women's pants suits and dirty books. The week after the big bonfire, he ran off with the church’s teenage secretary.    

 Jesus did not condemn people for being weak, or even for being sinners, but for being “hipocrites,” for pretending to be religious. 

Most priests and bishops, like most Catholics, are trying their best to be faithful disciples and good priests. One holy person, a person like Pope John Paul II or Mother Teresa, can do great good, just as one unholy person can do great harm.

Some people have used the scandal as an excuse for being an inactive Catholic – tempting, but certainly not a very heroic response.  Just as we cannot sit back and let Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa be holy for all of us, we cannot let the failure of leadership drive us out of the church. We priests need to be holy, yes, but you have to be holy too. We priests need to clean up the priesthood, yes, but our membership needs to clean up its act too. Religious leaders must avoid hypocrisy, but you too have to rid yourselves of religious hypocrisy. We are all called to be holy and we are called to be holy, even if everybody else in the church fails to be holy! The sins, faults or hypocrisy of others can never give us an excuse to quit, give up or drop out on our own paths to holiness! We are called to be good, no matter who is bad. It’s that simple!