A Word from Your Pastor - December 27 Feast of the Holy Family

Dear Parishioners:

Holy Family Sunday is a reminder to all of us that God came among us as a member of a human family.  Jesus, Mary and Joseph lived together in Nazareth, showing by the silence of those years just how valuable God holds the life of a family.  We are called to live in accord with the joy and peace of those years. 

We know that the Holy Family experienced many difficulties along the way.  The journey to Bethlehem, the Flight to Egypt, and the return to Nazareth were all moments of their lives where they had to travel in less than ideal conditions.  They knew the plight of immigrants and refugees.  The experience of the apparent loss of Jesus when they visited Jerusalem when He was 12 years old was a trauma for Mary and Joseph.  The loss of Joseph sometime before Jesus’ public ministry began was no doubt a hardship for both Jesus and Mary.  Then, Jesus’ departure from Nazareth, leaving Mary in the care of the wider clan was a time of sorrow for the Blessed Mother, anticipated what she would experience at the foot of the Cross.

When we realize that God chose to enter our world through the family, we can begin to see that how we safeguard family life is central to our witness of our Faith.  Fidelity and Commitment to those to whom we belong by the sacred bonds established by God are signs of the eternal significance of human life in light of our relationship with God.  God is the Father of a family, the People of God, who are made one in a Covenant established by Jesus Christ.  The Spirit empowers us to live in unity and to draw others into the circle of the family.

At St. Timothy Parish this weekend, we celebrate Holy Family Sunday by a special blessing offered to individual families at the end of Mass.  We are called in this Jubilee Year of Mercy to ensure that we attend to all the members of our families with a heart full of love and compassion because of the Mercy we have experienced ourselves.  May the family blessing enliven in your heart the zeal for the Kingdom that shows you are aware of the privilege of being a member of God’s Family in the Church.

A Word from Your Pastor - December 25 Christmas

Dear Parishioners and Guests for Christmas:

We welcome you to St. Timothy Church as we join together to celebrate the Coming of Immanuel, God with Us, in Jesus Christ.  The joy of this celebration is a reminder to us that God is present to us in every age.  The Church Fathers tell us that Joy is the infallible sign of God’s Presence.  We know the Story of Bethlehem is true because we discover that the Spirit of God brings the Son of God to birth in our own hearts and leads us to give glory to God in the highest.

Pope Francis has invited us all to celebrate this year as a Jubilee Year of Mercy.  We are called to acknowledge the Gift of Mercy, God’s Love offered to us after we have rejected it.  Opening our hearts to that Mercy, we are to become a sign of the availability of God’s Love and Mercy to all.  May we live this Jubilee of Mercy, showing the merciful face of God our Father to the world.

January 18-31, St. Timothy Parish will be hosting the Image of the Sacred Heart that was blessed at the re-consecration of the Diocese of Columbus made by Bishop Campbell on the Feast of the Sacred Heart this past year.  Special indulgences and graces are associated with this devotion.  May we all grow in our knowledge of God’s Love and of His call to share Jesus Christ with the world.

A Blessed Christmas to All!

 Rev. Timothy M. Hayes, Pastor

A Word from Your Pastor - December 20 Fourth Sunday of Advent

Dear Parishioners:

The Fourth Sunday of Advent opens to the final days of preparation for Christmas.  It is a special time of grace since we are now also in the Jubilee of Mercy.  Pope Francis has asked us to live in greater awareness of God’s Call to open our hearts to His Mercy and to allow our hearts to be transformed so as to show the world the Merciful Face of the Father in His Church.  As we prepare to welcome many guests to share with us the joy and beauty of Christmas in our church, with decorations and with the various Liturgies of Christmas, we must also resolve to be present to them with the Mercy that is offered in this Jubilee Year.

Throughout the Jubilee Year of Mercy, we will concentrate as a community on the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy, the practical way of reaching out to others.  I will reflect on these in the weeks and months ahead, offering insights into how our Parish family seeks to live them and on how we may live them more intentionally in this time of grace.

The Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy are actions we can perform that extend God’s compassion and mercy to those in need.

The Corporal Works of Mercy are these kind acts by which we help our neighbors with their material and physical needs:

·        feed the hungry

·        give drink to the thirsty

·        clothe the naked

·        shelter the homeless

·        visit the sick

·        visit the imprisoned

·        bury the dead

The Spiritual Works of Mercy are acts of compassion, as listed below, by which we help our neighbors with their emotional and spiritual needs:

·        counsel the doubtful

·        instruct the ignorant

·        admonish sinners

·        comfort the afflicted

·        forgive offenses

·        bear wrongs patiently

·        pray for the living and the dead

If we are living in the Light of the Gospel, these actions become “second nature” to us, because they flow from the Life of Christ that is at work in us.  Works will not get us to Heaven – only the Grace and Mercy of Jesus Christ will accomplish that.  However, if we attend to these kinds of works, we can be confident that Christ’s Spirit is at work in us.

As we prepare to welcome Jesus Christ once again through our celebration of Christmas, may we grow in our capacity to show His Face as the Face of Mercy by the lives we lead.  A Blessed Christmas to all!

A Word from Your Pastor - December 13 Third Sunday of Advent

Dear Parishioners:

We are moving right along in Advent.  With the Third Sunday, we reach a moment of joy, the leap of the heart that tells us that we will soon arrive at our destination: celebration of the Birth of Jesus Christ.

The Year of Mercy has begun.  I invite everyone to open to the grace of this year in two ways: First, deepen your understanding of Mercy.  How do you define it?  What is Mercy in your experience?  Second, find a practical devotion that for you expresses your commitment to live the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

I understand Mercy to be God’s Love offered again once it has been rejected.  It is an offer of forgiveness that opens to a new beginning, creating a space for a deeper relationship with God and His Church.  One devotion that has captured my attention is Pope Francis’ devotion to Our Lady, Undoer or Untier of Knots.

As we discover together the meaning of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, let us strive to be merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful.  Let us show a face of Joy that reveals the Love and Mercy of our God, so that others may come to find the Church to be a shelter in the storms of life.  Let us be ever more ready to follow the way of the Lord that leads us to Peace.

Prayer to Mary, Undoer of Knots

Dearest Holy Mother, Most Holy Mary, You undo the knots that suffocate your children, extend Your merciful hands to me. I entrust to You today this knot and all the negative consequences that it provokes in my life. I give You this knot that torments me and makes me unhappy and so impedes me from uniting myself to You and Your Son Jesus, my Savior.

I run to You, Mary, Undoer of Knots because I trust You and I know that You never despise a sinning child who comes to ask you for help. I believe that You can undo this knot because Jesus grants You everything. I believe that You want to undo this knot because you are my Mother. I believe that You will do this because you love me with eternal love.

Thank you, Dear Mother.  Mary, Undoer of Knots, pray for me. Amen.

A Word from Your Pastor - December 6 Second Sunday of Advent

Dear Parishioners:

This week, the Jubilee of Mercy will begin with the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception December 8th.  This is a time of special grace that Pope Francis has established as a reminder to us that God is Merciful.  Pope John Paul II set the theme of Mercy as a bridge into the New Millennium.  Now Pope Francis is setting Mercy as a foundation for the unfolding of the New Evangelization.

In our day, when religion is used as an excuse for violence, it is clear that we need to step back and see the truth of Who God IS.  If we have an image of God that is anything other than Mercy, we have not truly seen the Face of God.  The Year of Mercy will invite and challenge all of us to look again at things to see them differently.

How do you understand Mercy?  There are several perspectives that come to mind when I reflect on this quality of God.  First, it is simply Love, that is, Love offered a second time once it has been rejected.  It is an invitation to a new relationship that is deeper because it has been tested.  It is a gift of “new space” in which to act, a place of rest and retreat and promise.  It invites us to reach beyond ourselves to share more of what is most true, beyond the superficial.  It is a compassion that is real and that restores whatever has been lost.

In the Year of Mercy, we are called to allow God’s Mercy to change us.  Pope Francis’ Motto, “miserando atque eligendo” is a description of how God looks at us.  He sees us as we truly our, in our sinfulness and need for Him, and at the very same time, He chooses us to receive what He offers and to become His ambassadors before the world.  Jesus looks at the tax collector Matthew and sees how he is on the fringes of the People of God; He choose Matthew and invites him to follow Him.  We see that Matthew’s response to Jesus’ invitation is still resounding through the ages.  God is doing the same with us.  He knows us and He chooses us to receive and live His Mercy.

As we move forward into Advent and as we enter into the Year of Mercy, let us open our hearts to God and become the Church that we are meant to be, wearing the face of Mercy and inviting others to move beyond the world’s limits into a living relationship with the God of Mercy.  Heavenly Father, have Mercy on us!

Our Parish Advent Penance Service will be celebrated Wednesday, December 9, at 7 p.m.  Come to receive the healing touch of God’s Mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Confession is good for the soul!