A Word from Your Pastor - April 14

Dear Parishioners:

Easter’s message is simple:  Jesus Christ is Risen!  This one Truth changes everything.  The Easter Season, which lasts 50 Days – from Easter to Pentecost – is a time to deepen our grasp of the import of the Resurrection.  It is also a time to enter into the movement created by the Holy Spirit Who is at work forming us for the Mission entrusted to us.  We are called to bring others to the Risen Lord.

St. Timothy Parish is being called to evangelize, that is, to bring the Good News to others.   If you wish to be a true witness of the Faith for our world today, now is the time to throw in your lot with your brothers and sisters, and to make a personal commitment to seek out the lost, those who are in need of the Good News.

Have you given God and His Church first place in your life?  This is the starting point: to choose God as your Ideal, to put God first.  Have you done this in your own heart and told God directly in your prayer that you want Him to be the center of your life?  Does your life show this by how you spend your time?

Do you know your own Faith well enough to give a reason for it to others, especially in the face of the world’s rejection?  Are you able to give in simple terms the meaning of the Creed, the Sacraments, Moral Teachings and Prayer in the life of the Church?

Do you experience a call to go deeper with the Lord?  Do you understand your own “mission” within the great Mission entrusted to all of us?

Who are the people around you waiting for an invitation to explore the Faith?  Begin now to make a personal list.  Who are your neighbors who could/should be involved in the life of St. Timothy Parish?  Are there particular friends or co-workers that might be waiting to hear the Good News from you?  Make a list and begin to pray for them by name.  Then, await further instructions….

 

Year of Faith October 11, 2012 – November 24, 2013

We continue our journey through the Year of Faith.  As one way of observing this year, each week a small section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is read before the start of Mass.  This is a small way of offering some food for growth in Faith throughout this year.

ARTICLE 2     THE TRANSMISSION OF DIVINE REVELATION

II. The Relationship Between Tradition and Sacred Scripture

Apostolic Tradition and ecclesial traditions

83 The Tradition here in question comes from the apostles and hands on what they received from Jesus’ teaching and example and what they learned from the Holy Spirit. The first generation of Christians did not yet have a written New Testament, and the New Testament itself demonstrates the process of living Tradition.

Tradition is to be distinguished from the various theological, disciplinary, liturgical, or devotional traditions, born in the local churches over time. These are the particular forms, adapted to different places and times, in which the great Tradition is expressed. In the light of Tradition, these traditions can be retained, modified or even abandoned under the guidance of the Church’s magisterium.

Comment: The distinction between Tradition (big T) and traditions (small t) is central to the life of the Catholic Church.  Often those who criticize us for our following Tradition have no real understanding of this distinction.  Every human being follows traditions – familial, ethnic and cultural, religious, etc. – but only those who are open to it can follow the Tradition.  As Catholics, we have to make sure that we live in accord with Tradition by putting into practice in concrete circumstances, the traditions shared with us by the Church and our particular cultures, and by the way each family chooses to live the Faith.  What are your family traditions that express Catholic Tradition?