A Word from Your Pastor - October 26 Priesthood Sunday

Dear Parishioners:

This weekend has been designated a Priests’ Sunday and some of the organizations of the parish are highlighting the priesthood at the 10 a.m. Mass.  I thank you for the recognition of this wonderful ministry.  The priesthood is a gift to all of us.  All of us share in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, and when we are aware of the different aspects of that One Priesthood, we can work together for the good of all.

The ministerial priesthood, that is, the priesthood of those who are ordained in the Sacrament of Holy Orders, has unique and indispensable gifts for all who seek to follow Christ.  This Ministry functions in many ways.  It is a ministry of prayer, healing and leadership.  In a Diocese, the Bishop is the chief priest, the one who stands in the place of Jesus Christ as the sign and symbol of our unity with the Church Universal.  Pastors represent the priesthood in collaboration with the Bishop, shepherding the People of God in the field of the parish.  Other priests, parochial vicars, teachers, hospital chaplains, etc., bring various aspects of the priesthood into relief.

Using the Mass as the model for Priesthood, we can see that the priest gathers the people, proclaims the Word among them, touches them with Sacraments, and sends them forth in Mission to evangelize.  This is also true in its own manner and degree for all who share in the One Priesthood of Christ.  Together, we, priests and people united in Christ as Church, are meant to be a means of grace for all the world.

On this Sunday, I invite you and your family to reflect on the priests you have known.  Who baptized you?  Who celebrated the other Sacraments for you?  How have priests brought you to a deeper knowledge of Jesus and His Church?

As you know, we have had quite a variety of priests and pastors at St. Timothy Church.  You can see the pictures of the pastors since our foundation in the hallway behind the church.  We are hoping that some of our own young men may one day have their pictures in other parishes of the Diocese of Columbus as pastors.  We owe the Church a debt of gratitude for all who have served among us as priests.  We thank God for their ministry and pray that they may receive the reward of their labors.

A Word from Your Pastor - October 19

Dear Parishioners:

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.  This is the central advice Jesus offers us in regard to discernment of how we spend our resources and how we respond to the world around us.  As the Gospel account of today’s Mass shows, this world places demands on us as it supplies the coin by which we pay the taxes that are due.  So, too, God reveals to us that He wants back from us what He has given.  He wants us to return to Him the gift we have received.

At the present moment, once again, the teachings of our Catholic Faith are held up for scrutiny and often ridicule.  How do you respond to this?  We are entrusted with the Truth.  Our Church has endured and held fast to the Truth across two millennia.  The martyrs of every age have given their lives in witness to the Truth.  Even in our day, there are men and women and children who sacrifice their lives because they refuse to deny Jesus, Who IS the Way, the Truth and the Life.

In this time of testing, I invite you and your family to hold fast to a witness of the Faith.  Although you may have to endure ridicule for your fidelity, know that the prize is greater than this suffering.  God is worth your life.  The Church is teaching the Truth, often a Truth that is unpopular, but that remains true nonetheless.  Don’t be fooled by the media.  The Church has one purpose in the world: to witness to the Truth.  Those who hear the voice of Jesus seek the Truth.

The Synod in Rome is a gathering of representatives from the whole world.  This Synod is not re-defining our Faith.  Its purpose is to work together with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, to find a way to speak the Message of the Gospel to families in order to lift them up.  The results of this year’s gathering will set the agenda for another Synod that will meet next year.  It will also likely help to shape the content of the Gathering of Families that will take place next year in Philadelphia.  In the meantime, it invites all of us to hear the Gospel and to put it into practice with the family in mind.  How is your family creating a culture of Faith?  Have you begun to listen to the voice of the Shepherd?  How do you spend your resources?  Do you give to God what is God’s?

A Word from Your Pastor - October 12

Dear Parishioners:

Your prayers are requested for the Church universal as the Synod on the Family is underway in Rome at this time.  This is the first part of a two-year process that will continue with a similar gathering next year.  If all goes according to plan, Pope Francis will participate in the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in 2015.  In the year ahead, we will be hearing more about this.

All of us belong to families in one form or another.  We are the products of the family that gave us life and raised us to adulthood – our family of origin.  Many are also a part of a family by choice – through marriage or by way of a commitment to a particular group of people.  Religious commitments and promises are the means by which such families come into being.  God Himself, Who IS a Family as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, draws us into His Family through the life we share in the Sacraments.  The Holy Family of Nazareth reveals the importance God gives to family life in the very manner by which the Son of God lived it, sharing the joys and sorrows of Mary and Joseph and being part of the clan of David the King.

At St. Timothy Parish, we are seeking to be formed as a family, united in mind and heart, with Jesus, our Good Shepherd.  A call is going out for us to deepen our welcome of one another and of those who come to worship with us.  We are also hearing the invitation to participate intentionally in the New Evangelization by sharing our Faith in Jesus Christ with those around us.  There is a hunger for belonging and for depth that only God can satisfy.

How do you experience Faith in your own family?  Does it have a priority for every member?  Parents are particularly responsible for setting an example that teaches their children in the ways of Faith.  Have you taken seriously this responsibility?

Fr. Patrick Peyton, C.S.C., used to say “The family that prays together stays together.”  In this month of the Rosary, I invite you to consider praying a family rosary or to find some other form of prayer that involves your whole family.  Ask your children to pray for you the prayers they are learning in School or in PSR.  Teach them the prayers you learned to pray as a child.  Pick a prayer that you call your “family prayer” or compose one of your own creation.  Welcome Jesus into your family home in a very practical way.  Find some way to unite your family with the Heart of Jesus.  Whatever you may do, entrust your family to God and stay close to His Church as a family.  You won’t regret it!

A Word from Your Pastor - October 5

Dear Parishioners:

Respect for Life is a major theme in the month of October.  The responsibility that falls to us is to help the wider culture that often cheapens life to come to understand the infinite value and worth of each unique human person.  We are called to create a new culture of Life.  We are invited to acknowledge the clear teaching of our Catholic Faith that each human being is a unique and unrepeatable gift of God from the first moment of conception until the last breath, when God chooses to take that person back to Himself.

Many in our world see this as a merely a matter of religious opinion and preference.  The centrality of the dignity of the human person is considered something optional.  The irony is that every “cause” that is supported even by the secular culture finds its strongest argument in the question of dignity.  Think of the ideas that are considered common understanding and agreement in popular culture.  Which of them does not flow from an awareness of the dignity and worth of at least some persons?

“My rights” flow from the act of considering myself as having value and worth.  “Injustice” of every kind is acknowledged when certain persons or classes of persons are discriminated against by others or by structures in society that demean them. Calls for change and for reform flow from a recognition that it is in our power to renew a system of values.  When we look toward creating a “culture of life,” we are confronting this reality at its most fundamental level.

In the face of the world, we are an enigma because we see things differently.  Our starting point is not ourselves, nor our own practical needs, but the Wisdom of God Who sees us as He created us to be – free persons with dignity and worth that He Himself has given us.  May our eyes and the eyes of all around us come to see the glory of God in the human person and may we work to live in awareness of God’s intent for our world.

October is also the Month of the Rosary.  Remember that the Rosary is prayed every weekday before Mass by the St. Monica Prayer Group.  The Knights of Columbus lead a Rosary once a month before the 10 a.m. Mass.  Our School children pray a decade of the Rosary after the Wednesday morning School Mass.  First Saturday Mass takes place at 8:30 a.m. and a Rosary follows.  Perhaps your family can begin to pray a Family Rosary once a week or each day of the month of October, having the children take turns in leading.  At the very least, reflect this month on the Mysteries of the Rosary and how they connect with the life of your family – the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries, and the Mysteries of Light (the Luminous Mysteries) suggested by Saint Pope John Paul II.