The Second Sunday of Lent offers some familiar Scriptures for us to think about during the week. From the book of Genesis, we hear God asking Abraham to o er his son “as a holocaust.” We ask: Why would God ask this of Abraham whom He loved? Abraham’s willingness to cooperate brought God’s favor to him and he was prevented from laying his hand on the boy. Then we hear of Peter, James and John with Jesus on the mountain where Jesus was transfigured before them. Wow, what experiences! These are very different from our daily experiences or are they? Our experiences of being asked to do difficult things may not be as extreme as Abraham’s was or our experiences of Jesus may not be as dazzling as Peter, James, and John had on the mountain, but we can probably recall similar events in our lives. When you think back about these, how did you respond?
Last week, we published the income from Sunday collections here in church as well as online Sunday donations and weekday collections for the month of January. I plan on doing this every month and we have compared these figures with last year’s figures. It is noteworthy to see how online Sunday donations have increased since last year. The reasons that the Sunday collections in church were less than last year may be due to the weather. Remember, we had many very cold weekends and many people were suffering with the flu during this time. Even in church we had problems with the heating system for a period of time. As you can see, we have a budgeted amount for each month and have fallen short of that.
Online giving in the Sunday collection is an easy, consistent, thoughtful way of giving. Check below on how to do this or email Joe Nuzzi for help (jnuzzi@stfrancisnyc.org).
-Fr. Andrew Reitz, O.F.M.
Click HERE to sign up for online giving to to increase your weekly or monthly donation.
We need everyone to support our church to make up our budget deficit.
Thank you.