Over the course of the year, we as a parish participate in about ten “Special Collections” taken up nationally by the American Catholic Church.  Besides these, the Diocese of Gallup sponsors two annual collections – one for the education of our future priests (taken on Pentecost Sunday) and the other for the retirement fund for diocesan priests (usually held in September).  Finally, from time to time the parish will take up an “emergency collection” for some worthy and urgent cause.  The Cathedral parishioners have always been generous in supporting these varied collections.

We are presently in the unusual circumstance of taking up three second collections on three consecutive weekends.  Last Sunday we had the annual Collection for Latin American Missions.  The funds raised in this national collection are used to assist impoverished Catholic missions and dioceses throughout Latin America.  Thank you for your very generous response to this collection, in the amount of $1,845.60!  Next weekend, February 6-7, we will take up another annual collection for the African American and Native American Missions of the United States. Our own diocese has traditionally been the largest single beneficiary of this national collection.  It has been and remains today one of the main sources of income for the Diocese of Gallup, making possible the functioning and maintenance of several of our reservation parishes and missions.  Of all the national collections, this one and the Home Mission Collection (taken on the Fourth Sunday of Easter) have the greatest impact on our diocese.  We ask your continued generosity in giving to this collection.

Today we are taking up an emergency parish collection for the people of Haiti, with the purpose of assisting them in their recovery from the earthquake tragedy that crippled their country earlier this month.  Many of you may have already contributed to one or more of the various relief efforts for Haiti.  This weekend’s collection provides an opportunity for us as a parish community to support these efforts.  From the various media accounts of the earthquake and its aftermath, we know that the Haitian people need all the help they can get, and will continue to need it for a long time to come.  Whatever funds we collect will be sent to Catholic Relief Services, one of the major charitable organizations already at work in Haiti.  The Vatican has designated CRS as the principal agent of the worldwide Catholic Church in providing assistance to the people of Haiti.

From a strictly human (and somewhat selfish) point of view, I suppose, we could regard three special collections in a row as a “pain in the neck!”  Looked at from a spiritual viewpoint, however, they really represent a threefold opportunity for us to share a portion of our blessings with people in far greater need than we are.  We can’t all travel to Latin America, to Haiti, or to the struggling missions of our own country to personally lend a hand in efforts to make the Gospel effective in the lives of others.  What we can do is to help provide the financial means to make these works possible.  We can also support all these efforts through our prayers and our ongoing concern.  In thus reaching out to help others in their need, we open within our hearts an open channel for God’s blessings to come to us.  We can once again give our answer – as individuals and as a parish family – to the question posed in David’s Psalm:

“How shall I make a return to the Lord,

For all the good He has done for me?”  (Ps. 116.12)