A Word from Your Pastor - April 28

Dear Parishioners:

Over the course of several weekends, I included a bit of personal sharing about my silent prayer at Mass.  Just before the homily, I bow before the altar and I pray, “Lord, give me the homily You want me to have for this congregation.”  Of course I have done my preparation and I have an idea of what I want to say, based on the Scriptures and on whatever is happening in the life of the community and the world around us.  However, I am open to the Spirit and to the assembly in front of me to lead me down a different path in the proclamation of the Word for the present moment.  I am not sure when I learned to do this prayer, but I have prayed it for many years.  As a result, I have never delivered the same homily twice.  Even if I celebrate several Masses, the homily comes out a bit differently each time.

Pope Francis, in the first moments of his papacy, just before he gave his first blessing to the City of Rome and to the World, bowed and asked the people to pray that God bless him before he gave the blessing to the people.  Taking my cue from this act, I am inviting the assembly to pray in silence before the homily is given.  Here is what I invite you to pray before the homily at each Mass you attend: “Lord, give him the homily You want me to hear; give me the ears to hear it, the heart to receive it, and the grace to live it.”

With this prayer, you are invited to make a personal investment in the act of receiving the homily.  Note, this is not the same as a prayer for a short homily or even for a good homily.  Rather, it is far more intimate: it is a request to the Lord Himself to speak His Word to you through the homilist no matter what his skill.  It is also an expression of your willingness to hear what the Lord wants you to hear.  It expresses your commitment to have an open heart, a heart ready to receive whatever the Lord gives, whether it meets your own preferences or perceived need.  It also looks toward what will be happening after Mass, asking for the grace for you to put into practice what you hear.

We are living at a time when the burdens we carry near and far are too heavy for us.  As I look out at a congregation, I am aware of some of the struggles being faced.  The desire of my heart is to speak a word of comfort and encouragement, and to offer a challenge to renew your commitment to Faith and to a witness of trust in the Lord to meet whatever you may experience.  The only One Who can speak to all that is going on among us and in our world is the Lord.  I trust in Him.  Each homily I give is meant to be an expression of my trust also in you to hear the Word He speaks and to live it in such a way as to invite the world to come to meet Jesus in His Church.  The Good Shepherd will show us the way, if we follow Him.

 

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.

ARTICLE 2 THE TRANSMISSION OF DIVINE REVELATION

III. The Interpretation of the Heritage of Faith 

The Magisterium of the Church  85 “The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living, teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ.” (Dei Verbum 10 § 2.) This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.

86 “Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication, and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith.”  (Dei Verbum 10 § 2.)

87 Mindful of Christ’s words to his apostles: “He who hears you, hears me,”  (Luke 10:16; cf. Lumen Gentium 20.) the faithful receive with docility the teachings and directives that their pastors give them in different forms.

Comment: Hearing the voice of Jesus in Church leaders today is not always easy.  There are so many voices that speak in opposition to what we hear from such leaders.  Our secular culture is under the sway of what Pope Benedict XVI called “the tyranny of relativism.”  The Word of God, interpreted and proclaimed by the Magisterium, the living teaching authority of the Church, speaks with the voice of Jesus for us.  How do we respond to Jesus’ own promise: “He who hears you, hears Me”?

A Word from Your Pastor - April 21

Dear Parishioners:

The call to the New Evangelization is being heard all around the world.  It is now addressed directly to us at St. Timothy Church through seminarians at the Pontifical College Josephinum.  This year, a number of students have decided to form a special organization at the Seminary, the “New Evangelization Club” (NEC), and they have asked to partner with us to take the message door to door in the neighborhoods of our parish.

This is what the members of the New Evangelization Club propose:

“The Church has, for decades, been encouraging the Faithful to engage in a New Evangelization, preaching, and re-preaching, the Gospel at all times, in all places.  One time-tested method is that of door-to-door evangelization.  By bringing the Gospel to people in their homes and speaking of Christ and His Church at the individual and personal level, a great harvest of conversion, re-conversion, and holiness could be reaped.” 

The goals of the New Evangelization Club are “to organize and educate interested seminarians so as they will be able to into the Columbus community and begin preaching the Name of Christ.  This activity will have a three-fold purpose.  First, participation in the NEC will help spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those with whom we come into contact.  Second, it will contribute to a seminarian’s own formation in all four areas, most especially the Pastoral Pillar.  Third, it will give the seminarian the experience, knowledge, and desire to bring this necessary tool of evangelization back to his own parish and diocese.”

The first date for visitation set is Saturday, April 27, so this is a matter requiring a quick response from our Parish.  Members of the Parish Council met with some of the members of the Club at the March meeting of the Council and approved the idea.  Now we need parishioners and their families who are interested in participating.  This first effort will help us to make plans through the summer in order to develop a systematic approach when the Fall comes.  If you are willing to be part of this effort, please contact Mary Ballantyne, Chair of the Parish Council.  At present, we have nine Seminarians who are planning to be with us.  Our hope is to get something started now and to continue when the Seminarians return in the Fall.  Do you hear the Lord’s and the Church’s Call to share your Faith in Jesus Christ?

Here is a bit more information from the Josephinum about the new Club:

Who We Are

The Pontifical College Josephinum’s New Evangelization Club is a brand new organization modeled after successful programs that have been established at other seminaries around the country. Inspired by Pope Benedict’s call to re-propose the Gospel in a time of increasing secularization, the club seeks to cultivate the seeds of our Catholic faith within individual parishes in the Columbus area.

Our Mission

Prior to the arrival of the seminarians at the parish, some preparation would need to be done at the parish.  First, the areas/neighborhoods within the parish boundaries where the mission would take need to be established.  Second, the materials that are to be handed out at the houses (information on the parish’s time for Sacraments, etc.) need to be compiled.  Lastly, an invitation to the parish community to join in the door-to-door mission needs to be extended so that all who are interested may participate.

Keeping close to heart our Lord’s command to his twelve disciples, whom he sent out two by two (Mark 6:7), the New Evangelization Club will send seminarians in pairs into the parish community. Families within the parish, selected by the pastor, may volunteer to take two seminarians into their homes for one night. This will give the seminarians a chance to establish rapport with ordinary Catholics and encourage them in a prayerful bond to continue the spirit of evangelization in their day-to-day living. Ideally, some members of the household would then accompany the seminarians the next day as they venture door to door to invite other families to attend Mass and other parish functions, and remind them of the power of Jesus’ sacramental presence in the Church, especially in the Eucharist.

With God’s help, we hope to ignite a new zeal for the faith within your parish. We hope also that you will see this as a wonderful opportunity for the Josephinum to establish a further presence within the parish, and arm the future pastors of the Church with tremendous experience – practical and spiritual – that will allow them to better communicate the Good News to a generation in great need. Thank you for your attention. May God bless you and inspire us all to continue his work.

 

 

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.

ARTICLE 2     THE TRANSMISSION OF DIVINE REVELATION

III. The Interpretation of the Heritage of Faith 

The heritage of faith entrusted to the whole of the Church  84 The apostles entrusted the “Sacred deposit” of the faith (the depositum fidei),  (Dei Verbum 10 § 1; cf. 1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 1:12-14 as in theVulgate.) contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, to the whole of the Church.

“By adhering to [this heritage] the entire holy people, united to its pastors, remains always faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. So, in maintaining, practicing, and professing the faith that has been handed on, there should be a remarkable harmony between the bishops and the faithful.” 
(Dei Verbum 10 § 1; cf. Acts 2:42 (Gk.); Pius XII, apostolic constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, November 1, 1950: AAS 42 (1950), 756, taken along with the words of St. Cyprian, Epist. 66, 8: CSEL 3, 2, 733: “The Church is the people united to its Priests, the flock adhering to its Shepherd.”)

Comment: When Tradition is understood as the activity of passing on the Deposit of Faith, the heritage of the Holy People of God, we can see that it is not merely about the past.  In fact, it is forward-looking.  The act of passing on the Faith is meant to open each new generation to the Message of the Gospel and to the invitation to the life of Grace, the call to set our sights on Heaven.  In order to pass on the Faith, we need to be one with those who have come before and those whose charge it is to guard the Sacred Deposit.  We are faithful when we adhere to the teaching of the Apostles, the common life of the Spirit, the Sacraments, and the Liturgy we celebrate.  How attentive are you and your family to the Faith?  Do you guard it as a real treasure, a “sacred deposit”?

 

A Word from Your Pastor - April 14

Dear Parishioners:

Easter’s message is simple:  Jesus Christ is Risen!  This one Truth changes everything.  The Easter Season, which lasts 50 Days – from Easter to Pentecost – is a time to deepen our grasp of the import of the Resurrection.  It is also a time to enter into the movement created by the Holy Spirit Who is at work forming us for the Mission entrusted to us.  We are called to bring others to the Risen Lord.

St. Timothy Parish is being called to evangelize, that is, to bring the Good News to others.   If you wish to be a true witness of the Faith for our world today, now is the time to throw in your lot with your brothers and sisters, and to make a personal commitment to seek out the lost, those who are in need of the Good News.

Have you given God and His Church first place in your life?  This is the starting point: to choose God as your Ideal, to put God first.  Have you done this in your own heart and told God directly in your prayer that you want Him to be the center of your life?  Does your life show this by how you spend your time?

Do you know your own Faith well enough to give a reason for it to others, especially in the face of the world’s rejection?  Are you able to give in simple terms the meaning of the Creed, the Sacraments, Moral Teachings and Prayer in the life of the Church?

Do you experience a call to go deeper with the Lord?  Do you understand your own “mission” within the great Mission entrusted to all of us?

Who are the people around you waiting for an invitation to explore the Faith?  Begin now to make a personal list.  Who are your neighbors who could/should be involved in the life of St. Timothy Parish?  Are there particular friends or co-workers that might be waiting to hear the Good News from you?  Make a list and begin to pray for them by name.  Then, await further instructions….

 

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.

ARTICLE 2     THE TRANSMISSION OF DIVINE REVELATION

II. The Relationship Between Tradition and Sacred Scripture

Apostolic Tradition and ecclesial traditions

83 The Tradition here in question comes from the apostles and hands on what they received from Jesus’ teaching and example and what they learned from the Holy Spirit. The first generation of Christians did not yet have a written New Testament, and the New Testament itself demonstrates the process of living Tradition.

Tradition is to be distinguished from the various theological, disciplinary, liturgical, or devotional traditions, born in the local churches over time. These are the particular forms, adapted to different places and times, in which the great Tradition is expressed. In the light of Tradition, these traditions can be retained, modified or even abandoned under the guidance of the Church’s magisterium.

Comment: The distinction between Tradition (big T) and traditions (small t) is central to the life of the Catholic Church.  Often those who criticize us for our following Tradition have no real understanding of this distinction.  Every human being follows traditions – familial, ethnic and cultural, religious, etc. – but only those who are open to it can follow the Tradition.  As Catholics, we have to make sure that we live in accord with Tradition by putting into practice in concrete circumstances, the traditions shared with us by the Church and our particular cultures, and by the way each family chooses to live the Faith.  What are your family traditions that express Catholic Tradition?

A Word From Your Pastor - April 7

Dear Parishioners:

Divine Mercy is God’s Gift of His Love renewed after it has been rejected. 

Shakespeare expresses the freedom of the gift of Mercy in his play, The Merchant of Venice:

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. . . .,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.

God’s Mercy is offered to us in a special way this Sunday, the Octave of Easter, and we are invited to contemplate how it can become a part of our lives ever more fully. 

We need to Ask for Mercy.  Pope Francis says God is always ready to give us Mercy, but at times we may tire of asking for it.  We can ask for Mercy for ourselves, our world and for those who are in Purgatory. 

We need to Be Merciful.  The Beatitudes tell us that those who are merciful will find Mercy for themselves as well.  God Who is our Just Judge is also the Merciful Father.  But what He gives us is meant to be passed on.  Mercy, to be Divine Mercy, must flow.  Forgive and it will be forgiven you.

We need to Completely Trust in the Mercy of God, relying not on ourselves but on God.  St. Therese of Lisieux and many other Saints remind us that we can have Confidence in God.  He is utterly trustworthy.

The Resurrection of Jesus shows us that God has the power to accomplish what He promises.  The Promises given concerning Divine Mercy are beyond our grasp.  And yet, they are ours, if we have hearts open to receive.  Let us live in awareness of the Mercy of God for ourselves and for the whole world.

 

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.

ARTICLE 2     THE TRANSMISSION OF DIVINE REVELATION

II. The Relationship Between Tradition and Sacred Scripture

One common source...

80 “Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together and communicate one with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing and move towards the same goal.”  (Dei Verbum 9.) Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own “always, to the close of the age.”  (Matthew 28:20.)

...two distinct modes of transmission

81 “Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit.” (Dei Verbum 9.)

“And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound, and spread it abroad by their preaching.”  (Dei Verbum 9.)

82 As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, “does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.”  (Dei Verbum 9.)

Comment: The Church receives the Word of God, Jesus Christ, in the Fullness of His Person.  The same Church has the capacity to share Jesus with everyone through all ages.  Scripture and Tradition, in relationship to the Living Teaching Authority (the Magisterium) are the means by which Christ is shared individually and communally.  To receive Christ means to receive Him as He gives Himself to the Church.  How do you understand your own relationship to Jesus as He is revealed to you in and through the Church by way of Scripture and Tradition?