A Word from Your Pastor - April 21

Dear Parishioners:

The call to the New Evangelization is being heard all around the world.  It is now addressed directly to us at St. Timothy Church through seminarians at the Pontifical College Josephinum.  This year, a number of students have decided to form a special organization at the Seminary, the “New Evangelization Club” (NEC), and they have asked to partner with us to take the message door to door in the neighborhoods of our parish.

This is what the members of the New Evangelization Club propose:

“The Church has, for decades, been encouraging the Faithful to engage in a New Evangelization, preaching, and re-preaching, the Gospel at all times, in all places.  One time-tested method is that of door-to-door evangelization.  By bringing the Gospel to people in their homes and speaking of Christ and His Church at the individual and personal level, a great harvest of conversion, re-conversion, and holiness could be reaped.” 

The goals of the New Evangelization Club are “to organize and educate interested seminarians so as they will be able to into the Columbus community and begin preaching the Name of Christ.  This activity will have a three-fold purpose.  First, participation in the NEC will help spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those with whom we come into contact.  Second, it will contribute to a seminarian’s own formation in all four areas, most especially the Pastoral Pillar.  Third, it will give the seminarian the experience, knowledge, and desire to bring this necessary tool of evangelization back to his own parish and diocese.”

The first date for visitation set is Saturday, April 27, so this is a matter requiring a quick response from our Parish.  Members of the Parish Council met with some of the members of the Club at the March meeting of the Council and approved the idea.  Now we need parishioners and their families who are interested in participating.  This first effort will help us to make plans through the summer in order to develop a systematic approach when the Fall comes.  If you are willing to be part of this effort, please contact Mary Ballantyne, Chair of the Parish Council.  At present, we have nine Seminarians who are planning to be with us.  Our hope is to get something started now and to continue when the Seminarians return in the Fall.  Do you hear the Lord’s and the Church’s Call to share your Faith in Jesus Christ?

Here is a bit more information from the Josephinum about the new Club:

Who We Are

The Pontifical College Josephinum’s New Evangelization Club is a brand new organization modeled after successful programs that have been established at other seminaries around the country. Inspired by Pope Benedict’s call to re-propose the Gospel in a time of increasing secularization, the club seeks to cultivate the seeds of our Catholic faith within individual parishes in the Columbus area.

Our Mission

Prior to the arrival of the seminarians at the parish, some preparation would need to be done at the parish.  First, the areas/neighborhoods within the parish boundaries where the mission would take need to be established.  Second, the materials that are to be handed out at the houses (information on the parish’s time for Sacraments, etc.) need to be compiled.  Lastly, an invitation to the parish community to join in the door-to-door mission needs to be extended so that all who are interested may participate.

Keeping close to heart our Lord’s command to his twelve disciples, whom he sent out two by two (Mark 6:7), the New Evangelization Club will send seminarians in pairs into the parish community. Families within the parish, selected by the pastor, may volunteer to take two seminarians into their homes for one night. This will give the seminarians a chance to establish rapport with ordinary Catholics and encourage them in a prayerful bond to continue the spirit of evangelization in their day-to-day living. Ideally, some members of the household would then accompany the seminarians the next day as they venture door to door to invite other families to attend Mass and other parish functions, and remind them of the power of Jesus’ sacramental presence in the Church, especially in the Eucharist.

With God’s help, we hope to ignite a new zeal for the faith within your parish. We hope also that you will see this as a wonderful opportunity for the Josephinum to establish a further presence within the parish, and arm the future pastors of the Church with tremendous experience – practical and spiritual – that will allow them to better communicate the Good News to a generation in great need. Thank you for your attention. May God bless you and inspire us all to continue his work.

 

 

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

III. The Interpretation of the Heritage of Faith 

The heritage of faith entrusted to the whole of the Church  84 The apostles entrusted the “Sacred deposit” of the faith (the depositum fidei),  (Dei Verbum 10 § 1; cf. 1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 1:12-14 as in theVulgate.) contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, to the whole of the Church.

“By adhering to [this heritage] the entire holy people, united to its pastors, remains always faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. So, in maintaining, practicing, and professing the faith that has been handed on, there should be a remarkable harmony between the bishops and the faithful.” 
(Dei Verbum 10 § 1; cf. Acts 2:42 (Gk.); Pius XII, apostolic constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, November 1, 1950: AAS 42 (1950), 756, taken along with the words of St. Cyprian, Epist. 66, 8: CSEL 3, 2, 733: “The Church is the people united to its Priests, the flock adhering to its Shepherd.”)

Comment: When Tradition is understood as the activity of passing on the Deposit of Faith, the heritage of the Holy People of God, we can see that it is not merely about the past.  In fact, it is forward-looking.  The act of passing on the Faith is meant to open each new generation to the Message of the Gospel and to the invitation to the life of Grace, the call to set our sights on Heaven.  In order to pass on the Faith, we need to be one with those who have come before and those whose charge it is to guard the Sacred Deposit.  We are faithful when we adhere to the teaching of the Apostles, the common life of the Spirit, the Sacraments, and the Liturgy we celebrate.  How attentive are you and your family to the Faith?  Do you guard it as a real treasure, a “sacred deposit”?