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Fr. William Weary discusses the significance of St. Joseph's Day and the lessons we can learn from St. Joseph's silence and listening to God. He also praises the efforts of students at St. Catherine's Library in raising funds for pediatric cancer organization, Four Diamonds. Bishop Senior emphasizes the importance of living our faith actively and engaging with the world around us. He encourages parish involvement and using our time, talent, and treasure to support the church. I'm your host, Crystal Carmen Stephens, and with us today is Fr. William Weary. Fr. Weary, how are you? Very good. Greetings, everyone. Happy St. Joseph's Day. We're recording on his feast day. And that totally slipped my mind. That is fantastic. Great feast day. Let's have a moment and let's speak a little bit about St. Joseph and what this day means. Let's talk about St. Joseph. This is the feast of Joseph, husband of Mary. And then May 1st is the feast of St. Joseph, patron saint of workers. But I like to thought I'm meditating on St. Joseph's silence. He never says a word in the whole four gospels, whereas Mary is much more verbal. He is not. He has dreams and he operates silently. So I think we can learn from the silence of St. Joseph. He was a worker, of course, a carpenter. And his silence speaks volumes to me of contemplation, of meditation, of activity and work being grounded first in prayer. That should flow out of our work, our activity should flow out of our prayer. And I think that's one thing St. Joseph can teach us. That silence that we need so much in our society today. Our heads so full of this, that and the other thing from the Internet and whatnot. The silence before God. So important. Silence. Thinking before you speak. Yeah. Yeah. Being maybe a little more precise when we want to speak with the words we use. Sure. Like a dream. Right. And he listened. God spoke to him in dreams. First of all, number one dream, don't divorce Mary. Take Mary as your wife. Number two dream, get out of Dodge. Go to Egypt. Go now. And they did. But none of those words were reported. Joseph was a man of silence in the Bible, but he was a listener as well and listened to God. And that's how we get messages from God, by listening in silence. Yes. Very, very true. I find that just a little personal recollection. I find that I can speak a lot and not hear a lot. And I am trying to learn this Lent how to listen to God in the quiet. You know, I try to turn off the TV. God gave us two ears and one mouth. So we have to listen twice as much as we speak. Listen to words of wisdom. All right, Father, let's get this show started with a little news. I would like to talk about the kids down at St. Catherine's Library. They did an excellent job raising funds for an organization called the Four Diamonds. And that is a pediatric cancer organization that helps people whose children come down with this horrible disease. And they pay for all the medical care. And Catherine's Library, those kids, the eighth grade class are the leaders of this. They raised $26,000. That's for them a record. They've been doing this 11 years, a mini-thon. They conduct a mini-thon, sort of like a dance marathon, I guess. And yes, this is the most they've ever done. Record-breaking. Exactly. They have, however, collected over 11 years $143,000 thereabouts. That's pretty impressive, I think. Yes. I was down at their fish fry last Friday, and they're just so proud of it. They're so proud. I was talking with one of the parishioners, and they're just so proud of those kids. And I am very proud of them as well. And I just wanted to give them a shout-out on our little show. That is wonderful. And one of the beneficiaries, one of the students is a Becka Knoll diagnosed with leukemia the summer before entering her seventh grade year. And she beat it and benefited from funds from the Four Diamonds. She underwent 23 spinal taps as a St. Catherine student. Well, she might be in high school now. She's in high school now. She's, I believe, a senior. 23 spinal taps, 53 nights in the hospital, 75 oncology visits. And thanks in large part to the Mini Thon and Four Diamonds, she's free and clear right now. And her parents did not have to deal with that economic burden. That's right. They covered it. Four Diamonds covered it. Way to go, kids. Way to go, kids. Great job. Bishop Senior was there, and he said something that maybe we can chat a little bit about. He said, as a Catholic school, we really make it explicit that we want to live our faith in practical ways. And you're doing it, just that, with your effort here today. This is such a wonderful expression of who you are in Catholic education, and helping others is what it's all about in living our lives as Catholic Christians, Bishop Senior said to the kids. Fabulous. I just find it so amazing, and I understand, you know, it's not a one-day thing, it's something they do all year. But to raise, you know, $25,000 in a year in this economic climate is just pat on the back to every single child involved and to that whole school community. They're the only school in the diocese that does this. It's amazing. Yeah. They're very hard at it, really apply themselves. And, of course, Catholic education, what we want to teach as well, in addition to faith, is charity and working hard for love to make our love concrete in the world. Yeah. Charity. Charity. Father, can you give us the definition, for those who do not know the definition of charity? Charity is very simply love. It comes from the Latin word caritas, and amor is another Latin word for love. We have, you know, that word amorous is a word we use sometimes. But it's basically love, and love is the act of the will toward the good or toward the good of another. That sounds like a very unromantic, anemic definition, but it's really jam-packed with meaning. Because it doesn't just rest in emotions and feelings, but it is a determination to do the good, whether I feel like it or not. And a lot of the hard work that these kids did at St. Catharine might not have felt like it. It might have been, you know, some burning of the midnight oil at both ends, but they did it. They did it. Yes. The act of the will toward the good of the other. Very good. Very good. Thank you, sir. Keeping on in this vein of talking about Bishop Senior, I finally got around to reading his St. Patrick's Day letter, and there was a quote in here that struck me. So I'm going to read it to you, and then let's talk about it. Sure. Okay, so he's talking about the stained glass scene in St. Patrick's, and how St. Patrick is preaching to the pagan king and queen of Ireland. Right. And he's talking to these people who persecuted him, and he's not talking out of hatred, and he's talking out of love. And Bishop Senior says to us that we as Catholics in the Church of Harrisburg need to be looking outwardly to engage the world around us with a desire to encounter others, to listen, to discern, and to act under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, bearing the joyful and redemptive message of the gospel. Beautiful. Yes, absolutely. No doubt about it. St. Patrick's teaches us that, and it's a very inspiring window where St. Patrick's holding up the shamrock in front of the king and queen. It's interesting to look at the different expressions of the faces in that window and all the other windows as well. But the thing that gets me about St. Patrick is, you know, he was a slave boy captured by Irish pirates in a raid on his village when he was 16 years of age, and for five years had to tend sheep on the hillsides of Ireland in the cold and suffering from hunger. And he says in his autobiography, Confessions, that is where I learned to pray. That is where I learned to pray, on the hillsides of Ireland, suffering. You know, and that was, for five years, he must have been wondering, where is God? But then he escaped and then went back to his persecutors. To go back and to go back not out of malice is – I mean, that's an incredible thing because today we're taught that if something terrible happens to you, you go and you get back. You get them, those people who did that terrible thing, you get them back. You exact your revenge. Sure. And how many movies are based on a revenge theme? So many violent movies where the hero or the heroine – and you kind of sympathize with them because they were done dirt in some way, shape, or form. But now they're out for bear. Now they're out for bear and they're going to extract every ounce of revenge that they possibly can. And not exactly the Christian message, is it? Not exactly. Not exactly. Turn the other cheek, right? Right. So that is – oh, there was one more little quote I'd like to hear in this letter. This is a challenge to each of us to live our faith more actively without fear, to be Christians in whom Jesus is recognized. Visible signs of his presence in our midst, once again I invite you to join me in the work of renewing and strengthening our faith. That is Bishop Senior to all of us in this diocese. Right. That really made me think about parish life and how negligent I am in my parish life. You know, there are ministries that I could be helping out with and I'm not. Well, that's a good point. The parish is where it's all about, no doubt about it, where heaven meets earth or the rubber meets the road. And it's where God comes to us. Parish life is huge. I say this as a pastor, of course, but I wish more people would get that, to really do something for you. You can't do everything, but you can do something in the parish to pray about that, whether it's extraordinary ministry or Holy Communion. Oh, CCD teachers, they need – I think every parish needs CCD teachers and just so many things to be done to support your parish financially and also volunteer-wise, definitely. Yeah, I kind of get – I think we kind of get, in our household, a little caught up with the fact that, you know, we're writing checks every week, that's enough, but I don't think it is. I think that there's something that we can do there that, you know, doesn't need to be done every day or every week, but there's definitely a hole that I know I need to fill and I have to figure out what that is. Time, talent, and treasure, that's what we talk about in the stewardship message. Time, talent, and treasure. And I challenge everyone listening right here, right now, whenever you're listening to this broadcast, to find a place in your parish, find the hole that you can plug. Amen. All right, and on that note, I think we need to take a break. Okay. And we'll be back with more in the news. Good.