Fr. Jim's Blog

I am getting ready to head out today for the Tri-Cities. It will be good to have some time with my family.  I will post the Pastor's Corner this evening.  Praying for safe travels for everyone who is traveling today. 

Pastor’s Corner Week of November 9, 2014 Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I am currently residing in a dormitory and cannot use the usual video or spoken format for The Pastor’s Corner. Still, I wanted to make a post with something for you to think about during this upcoming week.  One of the things I was taught at an early age was to read with a critical eye. Not everything in print can be taken at face value and while we expect modern day journalists to hold some form of integrity and desire to be objective, the truth is our modern day press is incredibly biased, and in the case of American media, entertainment driven.  Have you ever thought about who decides what is newsworthy? There can be thousands of people dying at the hands of evil tyrants, wars, starvation, etc. and our headlines are all about the latest tirade of Miley Cyrus or some other entertainer. Quite frankly I find this incredibly embarrassing and don’t believe it at all reflects the valu...

I left after my last parish duties on Sunday for Central Washington to meet with my dad for a photography and mushroom hunting expedition. The place we went to is fairly close to where my father grew up so he was telling me about all the numerous adventures he had as a child. Let's just say the vast majority of parents and children probably aren't as daring and adventuresome as my dad. The fall colors were quite noticeable in some places on the first day. We decided that we would primarily focus on the mushroom hunting the first day and then look for photography opportunities on the second day. We had incredible success! I never knew how many different species there were of mushrooms and they were quite plentiful. We were able to harvest quite a few and it was great to hunt around because you never knew what you might find. (Kind of like the quote from Forrest Gump about how "Life is like a box of chocolates...") We cleaned our treasures off and stored them in ...

I just read Pope Francis' last Wednesday audience presentation. It is on charisms and how they must be welcomed and exercised within the Church. This is a very important topic that is always in need of sound teaching.  Below you will find Pope Francis' inspiring teaching.  Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good Morning, From the beginning, the Lord filled the Church with the gifts of His Spirit, thus rendering her always alive and fruitful. Distinguished among these gifts are some that are particularly precious for the building and journey of the Christian community: they are the charisms. In this catechesis, we want to ask ourselves: what, exactly, is a charism? How can we recognize it and receive it? And, above all, the fact that in the Church there is a diversity and multiplicity of charisms, is this seeing positively, as something good, or rather as a problem? In ordinary language, when there is talk of a “charism,” it is often understood as a talent, as a natural abil...

I am currently at the Palisades for our Good Leaders/Good Shepherds program. Things are going very well and we are learning a lot about different leadership styles.  We are getting a lot of resources and I am glad our Archdiocese offers this class. It should be very helpful. I brought all of my video equipment with me in the hopes of taping my first Pastor's Corner and posting it this evening. I got everything set-up only to find that the foot that holds the video camera and teleprompter in its place on the tripod is missing. It must be on my camera which I was using this past summer. I thought for sure I saw it attached to the bottom of the video camera but I must have been hallucinating. I will have to wait until tomorrow evening after the Pastoral Council to get it done. Fr. Ron Knudsen, our new parochial vicar, is moving into the rectory as I post this entry. Unfortunately, he has gotten called away to help in a parish where there was no one to cover, so I will have all of ...

I have been enjoying a busy week. What a great way to start with the All Parish Mass and Picnic. A special word of thanks to everyone who came together to volunteer and make it such a great success. I am especially grateful for Tom Gray who came forward to coordinate everything. God has sure been good in providing beautiful weather. Many people were inquiring about a dunk tank:) I didn't miss that contraption for some odd reason.  I am waiting for a piece of equipment to arrive (should come tomorrow) to complete my first videocast of the Pastor's Corner which I blogged about last week. I will try and keep future ones to around 3 minutes but because this will be the first one, it may go a little longer.  Fr. Peter Adoko-Enchill will be leaving our parish for the Grays Harbor parishes on Monday. It has been a great joy to share priestly ministry with him. He will be missed.  We will be welcoming our new parochial vicar, Fr. Ron Knudsen, on Tuesday. It is an incredible...

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I will begin a three year program called  Good Leaders/Good Shepherds  at the end of this month. This program will help me become a better leader and pastor. I have heard from other priests who just completed the program that they acquired very helpful skills and tools to help them in parish ministry. I am really looking forward to the program.  One of my personal goals is to do a better job communicating with the parish leadership and community. It is a real challenge with the busy demands of meetings and appointments to find time to just share a reflection or thought or just thank people for their faith and dedication to the Lord. After some thought and prayer I have decided to start  The Pastor's Corner . I will make a weekly video broadcast and podcast to help provide a weekly forum to communicate with the parish and school. I am going to find a corner in one of the rooms in the rectory and set up my little recording s...