A Word from Your Pastor February 13

Dear Parishioners:

February often brings doldrums. How wonderful for us that this month is a month that will bring Sacramental encounters and many community-building events instead!

Our 8th Grade class is in the final stages of preparation for their celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation with Bishop Campbell February 27. They are also gearing up for their trip to our nation’s capital by selling donuts and St. Timothy magnets. This Sunday the RCIA class will experience Anointing of the Catechumens in preparation for their final steps of the journey toward initiation in the Catholic Church. They are studying about the Sacraments that guide and shape our lives as Catholics.

We will also experience many events that will serve to build up our parish and school family. Plans for the annual Spaghetti Dinner are in full swing. Seniors on the Go are ready to make plans for some old vintage fun. The Women of St. Timothy will gather for a prayer breakfast to learn more about how to bring peace into the world.

Members of the parish are meeting monthly for a Webinar to learn about Stewardship, the response to God’s generosity and the call to share who we are and all we are with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. The Spring gala dinner auction is being organized. Festival teams are being set in motion. Alumni are working to form a network of connection with friends through the years. And plans for our Golden Jubilee in November are beginning to take shape.

The Rosary Prayer Garden will add a wonderful spiritual atmosphere outside the church. The idea of an outdoor path in the woods with Stations of the Cross has been mentioned even as our Scouts make it passable.

What are your thoughts about our community life? How are you and your family involved in things that build you up spiritually?


The Year of Prayer: Come, Holy Spirit
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful.
--And kindle in them the fire of your love.

Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created.
--And you will renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray. Lord, by the light of the Holy Spirit, You have taught the hearts of Your faithful. In the same Spirit, help us to relish what is right and always rejoice in Your consolation. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Countdown to our Golden Jubilee: Getting to know Saint Timothy.
We have noted that St. Paul points out details about St. Timothy’s family – his mother and grandmother being women of faith, his father being a Greek. In various letters and the Acts of the Apostles, we also learn about many of the friends and companions that were part of Timothy’s life in service of the Gospel.

Among these were Silas (Acts 17:14-15; 18:5) who was also called Silvanus (I Thessalonians 1:1, II Thessalonians 1:1), Erastus (Acts 19:22), Sopater, the son of Pyrrhus, from Beroea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, and Tychicus and Trophimus from Asia (Acts 20:4).

St. Paul shared his companionship with Timothy with members of his own family: “Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my relatives.” (Romans 16:21) Many texts point to the fact that St. Paul considered Timothy as his “beloved and faithful son in the Lord.” (I Corinthians 4:17; I Timothy 1:2; II Timothy 1:2)

These references point to the wonderful capacity that belongs to followers of Christ to share family values and relationships through the gift of Faith. Just as Timothy become a companion and brother, a son in the Lord to Paul, so we become members of one another’s family. Faith crosses generations and all other boundaries.


Reflections on the Liturgy:

Rites that accompany the journey of Faith are a part of the Liturgy that have always been present in the life of the Church but are often unfamiliar to those who have grown up Catholic. In the Baptism of Infants, these rites are present, but can go unnoticed, such as the anointing with the oil of Catechumens and the exorcisms. For adults, they take place either at Mass or in the RCIA classes at specified times along the way. It is helpful to experience these rites and to reflect on their meaning because they open up for us the riches of the Faith that we share. The anointing of catechumens recalls the need for strength and perseverance as we approach the Sacraments of Initiation.