Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ – Please enjoy this excerpt from Bishop Robert Barron at wordonfire.org, which he wrote after spending several days in the hospital unable to move or eat very much. God bless! – Father Wilson

“Without food, the body quickly collapses; without spiritual food, the soul atrophies. It really is as simple as that. Though materialists of all stripes want to deny it, there is a dimension of the human person that goes beyond the merely physical, a dynamism that connects him or her with God. Classically, this link to the eternal is called the soul. …

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Our summer marches on. People have been enjoying well-deserved vacations. We’ve enjoyed many visitors to Aiken and to St. Mary’s in particular. It’s hard to believe that in about a month, school will begin yet another new year. “Tempus fugit” my grandmother’s clock said – “Time flies.” It is good to take a pause and remind ourselves of the value and sacredness of time itself. This time is given to us as an invaluable gift. Let us learn to use it ever more wisely with the help of God’s grace from the gifts of His divine life within us – the Sacraments – to bring faith, hope, and love to our families, to our friends, to visitors and guests, and within ourselves. Time is precious and, except in movies alone, our experience of it marches one way only. Never wish time away – it never comes back. We must use each moment as a precious gift and value each soul as the priceless treasure he or she is.

Of course, one way to sanctify time is to join in the ancient practice of the Liturgy of the Hours. We are blessed at St. Mary’s to have this regularly on Mondays and Wednesdays, currently at 7:30 and 11:30am. (See the bulletin for the normal schedule, which resumes September 4.)

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
One thing people look for to determine if we are alive is if we have a heartbeat. That seems normal, except in our day and age. A priest friend of mine, Fr. Charles Byrd, recently wrote a thought-provoking reflection about companies such as Netflix and Disney threatening to stop production in his home state of Georgia, if they enact a law protecting a child’s life after his or her heartbeat is detected. Catholics stand for dignity of both mother and child. Here follows his excellent reflection.
– Father Wilson

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Recently, I came across this great little article about a type of love we seem to be losing – Friendship. Enjoy this except by an unknown author. (Note: The David and Jonathan mentioned are from 1 Samuel 18.) – Father Wilson

“Once upon a time, there was friendship. Once upon a time, society accepted that the love of friends could be the single most important thing in a person’s life, and they did more than just accept, they celebrated the fact. Throughout history, discourses and sermons have been written in praise of friendship. When Alfred Tennyson’s friend Arthur Hugh Hallam died tragically young in 1833, he spent the next seventeen years writing the great poem “In Memoriam” as a memorial to his friend; and Hallam is a first name used among the Tennyson family to this day. …

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