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Dear Friends, and especially the Mom’s at OLL,
Happy Mother’s Day!
There is an old Jewish proverb that says: “God could not be everywhere, so God made Mothers.” I liked
this saying so much that I put it on my Mom’s Mass card when she died in 2006. There is not a day that goes by
where I don’t have a good thought for my Mom. My Mom was everything to me. I am who I am today because of
her. I hope, if your mom is still alive, that you not only honor her today, but every day she is still with you.
An old proverb says, “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” The proverb’s point is that a
mother’s influence on a child is greater than any other influence.
Some modern critics feel the proverb over romanticizes mothers. It over idealizes them and their
influence. I’ll leave that debate to the critics.
The point remains: a mother’s influence on a child is great. It is especially great during the child’s early
years. A humorous story I found illustrates the point.
A young mother was attending a lecture on parenting. In the question and answer period, the mother
asked the lecturer which were the most important years of a child’s life.
“How old is your child?” the lecturer asked.
“Four!” replied the mother.
“Rush right home”, said the lecturer.
“You’ve just missed the four most important years.”
Again, to all you mothers out there, Happy Mother’s Day!!
On an entirely different note, people have been asking me about the AAA. I am happy to announce, that
as of today, we have pledges totaling $127,580, and from those pledges we have actually collected $97,076 which
we have sent on to the Archdiocese. This is another outstanding example of your generosity! We have raised over
$20,000 of our goal of $107,000 which will come back to us. Again, I can’t thank you enough.
To show you, again, how generous you are:
1) I told people at a weekday Mass that one of the panes of our new stained glass windows had a rock
thrown through it. The cost of fixing the window would be $5,000. Within a day, the parishioner
wrote me out a check for $5,000.
2) Last Sunday, I asked the people of the two Masses I celebrated to contribute money to the poor
people in Nepal who were suffering from the massive earthquake. All I did was put a basket in front
of the altar and we collected an astounding $1,700!
You are a generous people! You are a good people!! I am very happy to be here at OLL!!!
Have a great Ascension Day!
Father Brian