A Word from Your Pastor - February 24

Dear Parishioners:

Lent came up quickly this year, so perhaps you have not had an opportunity to make plans for it.  This is a reminder that we are still toward its beginning, so it is not too late to jump in.  I will offer some reflections over the next few weeks concerning the three practices of Lent: Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.  This week, we will look at Prayer.

What are you doing in the way of Prayer?  This Year of Faith offers an invitation to pray for a deepening of knowledge and understanding of Faith.  Are you reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church?  Remember that a small selection of this is read each weekend before Mass.  It is also published weekly in the bulletin with a Comment and some questions to be considered.

In the Parish, we have also been emphasizing the need to grow in an experience of Prayer in the Family.  Do you pray with and for your spouse?  Do you pray with and for your children?

What family traditions of Prayer would you be able to identify as your Family Prayer?  Do you pray the Rosary as a family?  Do you pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet?  Do you read Scripture together?  Have you ever brought your family to spend time in Adoration of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament?  Do you have a time for each member of the family to offer petitions to be prayed for by the family?  Have you come as a family to the Stations of the Cross?  Is Prayer an obvious priority for your family?

Can you identify your own favorite prayers?  What prayers have you memorized?  Do you have any particular Saints that enrich your understanding and practice of prayer?  What spiritualities have nurtured your prayer?

How do you understand prayer?  St. Therese of Lisieux said “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.” St. Teresa of Avila describes “Mental Prayer” as “nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him Who we know loves us."  According to St. John Damascene, “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.”

Prayer takes many forms: vocal prayer, meditation, contemplation, Liturgy.  There are memorized prayers and spontaneous prayers.   Prayer can be prayer of Adoration or Praise, prayer of Contrition or Sorrow, Thanksgiving, or Supplication or Petition.  We give God Glory and Honor.  We express our need for forgiveness.  We offer our gratitude.  We beg for our needs and the needs of the world.  We pray as individuals or in community.  Don’t be surprised if God shares with you and your family the “duty” of taking on someone or some need as a special burden in prayer.  Prayer shared is powerful.

Our intention as a parish this year concerns Prayer:  “We pray that St. Timothy Families learn to practice the Faith together by praying for the needs of the world together.  Each family is invited also to consider a family intention and to pray for that intention through the year and to bring it with them in their prayer at Mass every Sunday.”

 

Prayer is always meant to come from the heart.  Oremus! Let us pray!

 

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.

There will be no further Revelation

66 “The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  (Dei Verbum 4; cf. 1 Timothy 6:14; Titus 2:13.) Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.

67 Throughout the ages, there have been so-called “private” revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ’s definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.

Christian faith cannot accept “revelations” that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such “revelations.”

Comment: The Catholic Church is the guardian of the Revelation that has been given to human beings through Jesus Christ.  Any message that purports to be from God that ignores Christ or claims to move beyond Him is not to be trusted.  There can be no new revelation that does not correspond to the Truth revealed in Jesus Christ.  God does guide us through His Spirit and the Magisterium, the living teaching authority of the Church, to an ever more profound understanding of the Mystery revealed in Christ.  How does this awareness influence your efforts to discern the truth in the midst of the many claims to so-called knowledge and truth in the world today?

 

 

The Sisters of St. Michael Parish gave a wonderful presentation to the Women’s Club Prayer Breakfast last weekend.  Ask those who attended what they learned about virtue.

 

Mass in Honor of Pope Benedict XVI

Bishop Frederick Campbell will celebrate a Mass in honor of Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday, February 27, 5:15 p.m., St. Joseph Cathedral. All are invited to attend this Mass to honor the Holy Father and to show our gratitude for his contribution to our spiritual lives and pray for his health and well-being in upcoming retirement.

 

A Survey of Spiritual Needs: A Lenten Opportunity

What helps you to know God’s love in your life?

What helps you grow in relationship with God and others?

Please share your thoughts with us by participating in an exciting survey opportunity. This survey is being shared with Catholics throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. It is available in both English and Spanish, and will take less than 15 minutes to complete. Your responses will be anonymous; however, you will be given the opportunity to share your response to one question on the survey, as a way of helping others learn from, and be inspired by, your experience. Through your participation, our parish and parish leaders everywhere will learn about what helps us all to grow closer to God with faith that shapes our daily lives.

St. Timothy Church will participate in the survey from Ash Wednesday, February 13, 2013, until March 19, 2013, the Feast of Saint Joseph.  Please offer your own input by going to this web address:  www.surveymonkey.com/s/spiritualneeds.  Be sure to identify St. Timothy Church, Columbus, as your parish.