August 14, 2022 - Pastor Message
04/24/2024“Therefore I prayed, and prudence was given to me; I pleaded, and the spirit of Wisdom came to me. I preferred her to scepter and throne, and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her, nor did I liken any priceless gem to her, because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand, and before her, silver is to be accounted mire...Yet all good things together came to me in her company, and countless riches at her hands, and I rejoiced in them all, because Wisdom is their leader, though I had not known that she is the mother of these” (Wisdom 7:7-9,11-12).
It’s that time of year again that children dread and parents love, and everywhere we go we find those three ominous words: BACK TO SCHOOL. No doubt families have already begun all of their back-to-school preparations, getting new clothes, stocking up on school supplies, taking last minute vacations. One thing that we can sometimes overlook in our preparations, however, is praying for a successful school year.
But what constitutes a successful school year? Is it getting all A’s? Winning a state championship in sports? Selling out the school play every night? While all of these things are impressive and important goals toward which to strive, if these are the only criteria we have for a great school year, we’re again missing something. When we pray for a successful school year, the first and most important thing to pray for, the foundation that ties all of these others together, is the gift of wisdom.
Wisdom is not the accumulation of knowledge or skills. It is the understanding of how to use our knowledge and skills to achieve our purpose as human beings. Contrary to popular belief, our purpose as human beings is not to graduate so that we can get into a good college so that we can get a high-paying job and make lots of money so that we can have lots of nice things. Our purpose in life, the reason we are alive, is to love and serve our God by loving and serving our neighbor and helping each other to attain eternal life. Wisdom enables us to understand how to use our many gifts to achieve our divine goal.
Everything we do, including going to school, serves this purpose. So pray for wisdom as you or your children go back to school, that you and they can learn not only facts and figures but how to put those facts and figures to work in loving service of God and neighbor, and have a blessed school year growing in wisdom.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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