A Word from Your Pastor - September 28

Dear Parishioners:

Our children are the hope of the future.  They are entrusted to us for a time, but they grow up and then their children become their hope.  In times past, the whole community was aware of this and cooperated in direct and sometimes more subtle ways to ensure that truth and values were communicated in a clear way to our children.  That system is gone.

Now, our children are exposed to many different visions of the world.  As a Parish, through our School and through our Parish School of Religion (PSR), we strive to teach our children the values of our Faith and to initiate them into a practice of the Faith that helps to keep them in touch with the deeper values we have received as our inheritance.

The problem we have now is that Faith is often treated as something optional.  Practice of religion is seen as something merely private and personal.  Quite the opposite is true.  We need to put our Faith into practice so that we can continue to be in touch with the resources that a living relationship with God offers us and so that we can witness to the prior right of God in our lives.  Practice of our religion and the effort to meet the obligations we have ought to be a priority.

Many of our children are receiving an ambiguous witness concerning Faith.  If they are sent to a Catholic School or enrolled in PSR or involved in Youth Group, then they have some resources at their disposal that their peers may not have.  That is good.  However, if there is not a consistent family practice of the Faith, those advantages may disappear. Parents are the first teachers of their children in the ways of Faith.  In the Rite of Baptism, we pray that they may be the best of teachers, living and acting in such a way as to share Faith with their children.

How are you doing as a family?  Is every member of your family worshiping God on Sunday?  Catholics do this through the weekly celebration of Sunday Mass.  This is not an optional part of practice of the Faith.  It is essential.  If families send their children to learn about the Faith but fail to attend Mass each weekend, they cause confusion.

In October, we do a count of all who are present at Mass.  You are invited to be counted among those present each week.

Our efforts to promote the New Evangelization also continue this year.  Seminarians from the Pontifical College Josephinum and some of our own parishioners are planning a neighborhood visit Sunday, October 5th.  Are you ready to share your Faith?

A Word from Your Pastor - September 21

Dear Parishioners:

St. Timothy Parish is, as parishes go in the Diocese of Columbus, a medium-sized parish.  Having a School, we are also a parish that has so far managed to carry forward the vision for Catholic Education that was present in the first generation of Catholics in our nation, in the person of our first Bishop John Carroll and our first native-born American Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.  We are once again at a time of creating a vision that will help to sustain us into the future.

We worship together in a church built by our first members and renewed when necessary along the way.  We teach our children and offer them an opportunity for recreation and social activities through a Parish Center and Gym that began as a dream and was accomplished by cooperation among many.  Can you see that the Good Shepherd Who brought us to this point continues to have plans for us as a Parish and a School? 

The Church in our time is being called to take seriously the task of Evangelization through witness of life and a conscious effort to catechize those who have never heard the Gospel and to be renewed by a deepening of catechetical instruction for those who have lived it but have lost the zeal of their first response.  Through welcome, invitation and witness, we prove we are disciples of the Lord by spreading the Gospel in the world today.

Catechetical Sunday reminds us to show our gratitude to those who dedicate their time and energy to catechize in the name of our Parish: teachers in our School and PSR program, the RCIA Team, and the coordinators of the various programs of Adult Education in the ways of Faith.  Parents are the first teachers of their children in the ways of Faith.  All of us need to continue to study and learn what Faith teaches and to follow the wisdom we receive.

All families are invited to renew a commitment to catechesis of their children and a faithful witness of practice of the Faith.  How are you responding to the Spirit’s call to go deeper?

A Word from Your Pastor - September 14 Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Dear Parishioners:

A principle for effecting change in our world these days that you may have heard is “Think globally, act locally.”  This idea suggests that the way to change the world is to start within ourselves and close at hand.  We have to learn to see things from a broader perspective even as we work within our own sphere of influence.  This idea puts into our hands the simple truth that each one of us always has the power to make a difference.

The Baltimore Catechism that taught many how to express the Catholic Faith in succinct ways gives some answers that remind us to keep the broadest possible vision in view:

Q. Who made you?

A. God made me.

Q. Why did God make you?

A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world,
and to be happy with Him forever in the next.

With these questions and answers at the beginning of the Catechism, the Church places before us the realization that we belong to God and that God has a plan for us.  That offers us a perspective as broad as you can get – from the point of view of God Himself.  When we start there, everything else is put into proper perspective.

Why does the Church encourage some sorts of behavior, such a fidelity, honesty and integrity?  Because it expresses who God creates us to be.

Why does the Church say “no” to some behaviors and activities that the world applauds or invites us to do?  Because they are not in accord with God’s plan for us or with His reason for the realities involved.

One way to change the world, and to cooperate with God’s efforts to prepare us for life with Him in the next, is to accept the disciplines of the Church so as to learn and develop the virtues that free us to live for God.  We all have “family rules.”  The Church is a family that has its rules.  We may complain about the rules and wish they were different than they are.  But if we follow them, we will discover that we reach our true goal more quickly.

As the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross reveals to us, Christ Himself became obedient, even to death on the Cross.  For this very reason, He was highly exalted and became the Redeemer of the world.  By loving in the face of rejection and suffering, He lifted us up to a capacity for Life with God.

When we work to shape our thoughts with the mind of Christ and His Church, we open ourselves to a new way of living.  By living now in accord with the Love revealed through the Cross of Christ, we become sharers in divine life and bring Hope to the world.

A Word from Your Pastor - September 7

Dear Parishioners:

We have experienced a number of deaths in our parish family lately.  Some long-time and active parishioners have been called Home and many families in our parish have lost close family members elsewhere.  Our Bereavement Ministry and Resurrection Choir have been working overtime.  We are very blessed to have such a compassionate community to be present to those who experience the loss of loved ones.

It seems an appropriate time to offer a few notes that may be helpful to all of us as we look toward planning for the day we will come to the end of this life’s journey.  I have personally been edified by the preparations offered by those who have died that have made the experience - not quite easier - but simpler for those left behind.

At the moment someone you love dies, it is hard to think, so often families are not sure just what to do.  Having a list of who should be contacted is helpful.  Please be sure to list the St. Timothy Parish Office (451-2671) among those who are notified.  In fact, if you or someone you love is ill, let us know early in the process. 

The Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick and Holy Communion, at home or elsewhere, are very consoling to those who are ill and to their families.  “Last Rites” include Confession and Absolution (with the Apostolic Pardon), Anointing, and Holy Communion as Viaticum.”  Since we know not the day nor the hour, we ought not to miss the opportunity for the touch of Sacramental Grace.  The sooner we know, the sooner we can assist the family as well.

Planning for the Funeral Services include a few details:  What Funeral Home will you use?  It is best to choose one that is very familiar with the Catholic funeral rites.  The Catholic Funeral includes three sites:  A Prayer Vigil at the Funeral Home, Mass at a Catholic Church, and the Rite of Committal at the Cemetery.  The preference is to have the body (which served as a temple for the Holy Spirit) present for the time of visitation and for the Funeral Mass.  If cremation takes place, then the cremains are kept intact and a Rite of Committal can take place later.  If cremation takes place before the Funeral Mass, then the cremains may be present at the Mass and Committal follows.  It is considered disrespectful to “sprinkle the ashes” of a human being in various locations or to divide them.  Our own human nature needs to have a place to “visit” where the loved one’s earthly remains are to be found.  Interment in a cemetery or columbarium is the Catholic practice.

On the day of the Funeral, our parish offers the option of a Bereavement Meal following the Funeral and the Service at the Cemetery.  The team need to know an approximate number of attendees expected.

In recent times, families have been grateful that their loved ones picked out Readings and songs for the funeral beforehand.  A booklet for this and a guide to the songs that may be chosen are available in the Parish Office.

Sometimes there are things you wish you could say to loved ones that they are not able to hear due to life’s complexities.  A letter left with your funeral preferences and plans can be very consoling.  Write a letter to those left behind and let them know that you have thought about them experiencing this moment of grief.  It will help more than you can imagine.

The Bereavement Committee tries to keep track of loved ones who have died through the course of a year in order to remember them on All Souls’ Day each year.  If you lose a family member, even if the funeral is held elsewhere, please let us know so that person’s name can be in the list for the All Souls’ Mass of Remembrance.  This year we will have that celebration at the Noon Mass Sunday, November 2^nd.

To all families who have lost loved one, we offer our sincerest condolences.  We recall that for those who have Faith, death is not the final word.  Life is changed, not ended.  We will meet again in the Kingdom. 

Eternal Rest grant unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.  May they rest in peace.  Amen.  May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.