Fr. Don’s Weekly Letter ~ 13 September 2026

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

As we come to Parish Life Weekend again this year, I have a couple of reflections which come to me with urgency. Maybe this is me fulfilling my Baptism with a prophetic message!

I don’t think we as Church understand our roles according to the dignity and responsibility of our Baptism. We will never really understand who we are and what we are supposed to do with this life if we don’t seriously sit with the Lord and think this through.

Think about how Mary – when confronted with the complexity of life and its many unexplained mysteries as the Mother of God – how she “treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19, 2:51). Her response to the mystery of Christ was one of attentive faith. She receives God’s works, preserves them within herself, and gradually seeks to understand their meaning. Her pondering is not passive daydreaming, but prayerful contemplation – bringing together the angel’s message, Elizabeth’s greeting, the shepherds’ testimony, and the prophecies concerning her Son.

Mary becomes a model for the Church and for every Christian who must grapple with the real questions about the hows and whys of this life, always with an eye on the horizon, from which the Lord will return.

We ritualize this reality at Saint Bernadette with our Parish Life and Commitment Weekends. If we don’t take inventory of our prayer, our service, and our tithing, if we don’t confront it and respond with deeper commitment to grow in these ways, we won’t allow Word and Sacrament to change us, to shape our lives.

This is the meaning of our theme this year: “Stir up the waters of baptism among you. You are PRIESTS. PROPHETS. KINGS.” We unpack what that means in the first pages of our Parish Life and Ministry Directory 2027, what Saint Peter meant by saying, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, so that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2).

“Stir up the waters of baptism among you,” understood metaphorically, is an exhortation to renew, awaken, or make fruitful the grace received in Baptism.”
Stirring up those waters among us, like the pool of Bethesda, will be the source of healing and belonging for a nation that needs to rediscover its holiness.

Baptismal water is associated with new birth through water and the Holy Spirit, cleansing from sin, dying and rising with Christ, incorporation into the Church, and the continuing action of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life of our precious community at Saint Bernadette. Stirring it up suggests our awakening the baptismal identity and grace already present in us. The Easter Vigil itself connects baptismal water with the grace of the Holy Spirit and with rising to new life in Christ.

I interviewed all of our Confirmation candidates receiving the sacrament in October and spoke about how most of us were infants and our parents and Godparents made our profession of faith for us. The Rite of Confirmation begins with them making that profession for themselves, finally. Now is the time to own it and take up responsibility for their Church, I told them.

Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). The Christian life is not lived in an imaginary future when circumstances will finally be perfect. God’s grace encounters us in the present moment. Now is the time of conversion. Now is the time for forgiveness and mercy. Now is the time to give ourselves as a holy offering to God and each other. This is my prayer for our parish family.

The Lord be with you,