A Word from Your Pastor - September 15

Dear Parishioners:

So many wonderful things are happening at St. Timothy Church that it is hard to keep up!  If you are not yet involved directly, actively, and with zeal in some action in the life of our Church that flows directly from your Faith, please listen to the Call.  God is speaking to your heart.  He needs you, wants you, begs you to respond to the Spirit that is proclaiming to the Church throughout the world that we are to be witnesses to the Resurrection of Jesus and to His action in our world.

Last weekend, I wrote about a book, Rebuilt, that can help us to create a common vision for our Parish and School community in response to the call to be disciples.  This weekend, I want to share with you an exciting collaboration with the Pontifical College Josephinum in the effort to teach the priests of the future practical ways to enter into the New Evangelization.  We have been assigned two first year Theology Seminarians for the year to work with us on this project: Stephen Vaccaro, of the Diocese of Arlington, and Alexander Pacelli, of the Diocese of Ogdensburg.  See the insert in the bulletin to learn a bit about them which I found by an internet search on the websites of their respective dioceses. 

In years past, we have had seminarians during the school year who focused their attention on our Sick and Homebound, assisting with Mass at the Forum and visiting our shut-ins.  In the summers, as you know, we have had seminarians from the Diocese of Columbus, who have worked variously with our EMs, Altar Servers, and Youth.  The two assigned to us this year are working with all of us to reach beyond our usual ministries, assisting us to find a way to connect with those who are entrusted to us in the “mission field” of our neighborhoods. 

I am personally excited about the possibilities for inviting those we live and work to join us on the journey of Faith.  Those denominations who go door-to-door find a welcome and draw in new members.  Why should we not learn from them and respond to the Church’s call to “go out to the outskirts” to reach those who are marginalized?  This is the time to call for a return to those who have left us and to learn how to welcome those who do not belong to any community of Faith.  It is a time for a change of mind and heart about what it means to practice our Faith.  We are called to be disciples and witnesses, to minister to a world in need of healing and vision.  Open your heart and let the Spirit show you the way!

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.

CHAPTER THREE     MAN’S RESPONSE TO GOD

ARTICLE 1          I BELIEVE      II. “I Know Whom I Have Believed”  (2 Timothy 1:12)

To believe in God alone      150 Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed. As personal adherence to God and assent to his truth, Christian faith differs from our faith in any human person. It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what he says. It would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature. (Jeremiah 17:5-6; Psalm 40:5; 146:3-4.)
To believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God

151 For a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he sent, his “beloved Son,” in whom the Father is “well pleased”; God tells us to listen to him.  (Mark 1:11; cf. 9:7.)  The Lord himself said to his disciples: “Believe in God, believe also in me.” (John 14:1.) We can believe in Jesus Christ because he is himself God, the Word made flesh: “No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.”  (John 1:18.) Because he “has seen the Father,” Jesus Christ is the only one who knows him and can reveal him. (John 6:46; cf. Matthew 11:27)

To believe in the Holy Spirit          152 One cannot believe in Jesus Christ without sharing in his Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals to men who Jesus is. For “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit,”  (1 Corinthians 12:3.) who “searches everything, even the depths of God.... No one comprehends the thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God.”  (1 Corinthians 2:10-11) Only God knows God completely: we believe in the Holy Spirit because he is God.

The Church never ceases to proclaim her faith in one only God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
 

Comment:  Every good “old time Catholic” knows how to answer the queston “Why did God make you.”  “God made me to know Him, to love Him and to server Him in this life, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.”  We are called to a living relationship with God Who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  We are destined to an eternal Home within the Life of the Trinity.  This begins now.  How do you know God?  Are you aware of the action of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in relation to you?  How do you set your sights on what is Eternal?

Focolare Word of Life for September 2013: 

“Let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” (1 Jn 3:18)

http://www.focolare.org/en/news/category/parola-di-vita/