Serving God first: A challenging priority in life

		Living the Scriptures  with St. Paul University  Catholic Center  James Carrano

I am married to a wonderful woman, have a son named Isaac, and I thank God for them everyday. I am blessed to have two wonderful parents who are healthy and happy.

I love the Lord Jesus and I try to love and serve him each and every day. Some days I do okay, other days not so okay, but that is the beauty of life; I get a fresh start each day with the opportunity to make right the wrongs of the previous day and to attempt to put things in right order.

My family and my work mean everything to me. My goal is to have the Lord God at the center of these things and the center of all things. Yet, I read the Gospel for this Sunday and I do not know exactly how to respond.

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (June 26, 2005) 2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a Ps 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19 Rom 6:3-4, 8-11 Mt 10:37-42

It seems to me that Jesus is warning us to be careful of making our loved ones the most important things in our lives. Jesus warns us against having idols and that we must take up our cross and follow him and we must lose ourselves and our life for Christ so that we can find meaning in life. It is an amazing message, but I know I am mediocre at realizing it in my own life.

It seems too easy to get caught up with the deadlines, appointments, and needs of life and not consider where God fits. All of a sudden I am trying to love my wife but by serving her I sometimes forget about God's place in my day.

Don't get me wrong, serving my wife is a good thing, but I need to remember the right order of things. In everyone's case, the priority should be God and that is what Jesus is encouraging us to remember. After that, it depends on your vocation. You may be married, single, a priest, or religious. You may be a student or discerning your vocation.

As a married man, my wife and family come second only to God. I should not compare my lifestyle to a priest because we are not called to live in the same way. I may be called to the same general principles but as far as serving God as a priest does, I have not been called to that and trying to live that kind of lifestyle would be a disservice to my family.

My job should not come before my family either. In general, the needs of my family should be first on my list of concerns.  Yet keeping this order is so difficult. There are so many things that stand in our way each and every day. I want to be worthy of the Lord but I seem to choose loving others first over loving God without even realizing it.

How many times have I sacrificed something that I was going to give to God to give to someone else? How many times have I told myself that I would read the Word and pray for 30 minutes and used half of the time doing something else?

I am encouraged by the last line of this Gospel reading. As long as I am trying to accept every one and serve every one, I will not lose the reward that the Lord God has for me. I may serve others before God and put things in less than the best order but I am at least attempting to do what is best.

	Reflection question • In what areas of my life do I currently fail to focus on God first?

I am encouraged by the words of a good friend of mine; "At the time, I did what I thought was best." If we are trying to do our best, and not just saying it, then we will be in pretty good shape. I pray that the Holy Spirit will guide us all to choose the best way.

James Carrano is a UW-Madison graduate and serves as director of music and liturgy at Paul University Catholic Center.

St. Paul's Web site is www.stpaulscc.org

Faith Alive!

In a Nutshell The parish isn't primarily about buildings, institutions and committees, necessary as these are. It is about mission, an active, dynamic outreach. Central to this is evangelization. A mission is what a person or group is sent to accomplish. The idea of mission is at the heart of Christian belief. A parish's mission is the church's mission carried out in its own locale. Catholic News Service 3211 Fourth St NE Washington DC 20017 202.541.3250 cns@catholicnews.com	Food for Thought   Figuring out what a parish's mission is starts with figuring out Christ's mission and how the Gospels spell it out. The parish's mission is Christ's mission, it has been said many times. But what a mission Christ had! Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati once cautioned people not to forget when formulating their parish's mission how much it has to do with "sharing and communicating the holiness of Christ." Obviously, a parish serves its own people and it serves others. It gathers its members together to celebrate the sacraments and all their life-giving reality. Like Christ, a parish's actions encompass healing and forgiving; praying; opening people's eyes and ears; and welcoming, restoring and affirming life in all kinds of ways and all kinds of settings. full story   Rediscovering a parish's mission By Father Robert L. Kinast Catholic News Service Missions and mission statements are everywhere. International corporations and small businesses operate by them; military operations and space shuttles conduct them; service organizations ranging from assisted-living facilities to the Red Cross implement them; even the Blues Brothers had one. A mission defines an organization's purpose and goals. The root word, "mission," comes from the Latin word meaning "to send." A mission is what a person or group is sent to accomplish. full story  How parishes bring people to Christ and Christ to people By Father Dan Danielson Catholic News Service The parish is where most Catholics encounter the church. It is there that they receive the sacraments, are baptized, married, reconciled. In the context of parish life their children are instructed in the faith, their relatives are buried. At times the parish is so great a point of identity that Catholic people refer to themselves as belonging to St. (name) Parish. But modern transportation, especially the automobile, is changing much of that. People now attend Mass where they want, belong to the parish that "suits them" and become involved in it either as somewhat passive recipients or active ministers. full story  Giving flesh to a parish mission statement's words By Father Herbert Weber Catholic News Service A group of parishioners gathered about 10 years ago to discuss ways to form small faith communities within our parish. What these parishioners shared was a desire to follow the parish's stated mission. Like many parishes, ours had formulated its mission through a long process that involved hundreds of parishioners. Rather than publish a mission statement and then forget about it, members of the pastoral council advised the pastor, my predecessor, that small faith communities could be one way of responding to that mission. full story
	Faith in the Marketplace   This Week's Discussion Point: How do you participate in carrying out your parish's mission? What do you do?     Selected Response From Readers:
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