A Word from Your Pastor April 30

Dear Parishioners:

The Season of Easter unfolds the richness of the Resurrection of Jesus in our lives.  The Sacraments are the primary means for us where the power of the Resurrection is unleashed.  At Easter, the whole Christian Community is invited to renew our Baptismal Vows, even as new members are joined to us through the Sacraments of Initiation – Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist.  It is fitting that in the Easter Season, we also regularly celebrate First Holy Communion for our Second Graders.  Our First Communion took place on Saturday.

As we experience new participants in the Sacred Mysteries, we are reminded of the great Gift that is ours through the Sacraments.  Their delight and zeal ought to lead us to a deeper appreciation for what we share.  “Communion in Sacred Things” is our taste of the Kingdom, the joy that will be ours when we enter into the Communion of Saints.  All are invited to reflect on the Sacraments and to renew commitment to live them fully so that others may come to know the Risen Lord.

In Jesus, God became one of us.  Through the Sacraments, we are incorporated into Christ and we live the Divine Life.  Jesus Christ makes Himself present to the world through us.  Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist and the other Sacraments empower us to bring Life to the world.

In many of the Sacraments, parents play a pivotal role in the lives of their children.  In Baptism, parents and godparents present the children and speak for them in professing their Baptismal Vows.  In First Reconciliation and First Eucharist, it is the parents who set the example of faithful response to practice of the Sacraments and who ensure that their children are ready.  At Confirmation, again, it is the family’s practice of the Faith through participation in Mass each weekend that ensures that their children are open to the action of the Spirit Who strengthens their Faith and empowers them to witness to Christ in the world.  It takes a village to raise a child.  It takes a family (the domestic church) in cooperation with a parish (the Church as Communion) to bring up the children in the ways of Faith, especially Sacramental living.

We welcome the Neophytes of our parish for 2017: Todd Robert Marti and members
of the Nuro-Gyina family – Celestina and Stephanie, and the twin infants Austin and Amy.

A Word from Your Pastor April 23 - Divine Mercy Sunday

Divine Mercy Sunday is a reminder to all of us that Easter has an abundance of Graces that God intends to shower upon us and on the whole world.  When we open to God’s Love, our hearts are expanded.  We receive and share in the personal Love God has for each one of us, and, if we are truly open, we begin to discover that God’s Love flows through us out to others.

When you belong to Jesus, you realize that you must begin to think like Jesus.  When you accept Jesus’ Revelation of Himself as the Son of God, you discover that as His brother or sister, you too are a child of God.  Mercy transforms us.  We see the world differently when we look at it through the eyes of Mercy.

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, we are called to spend time in the awareness of the power of Mercy to bring our world into conformity with God’s Plan.  Let us ask for Mercy.  Let us be merciful.  And let us completely trust that the Mercy of God will be poured out into the world through us.  “Jesus, I trust in You” is the simple prayer that invites the Mercy of God to calm our fears and to open to the abundance of Grace held in store for us.

The Sacramental Life is manifestly the conduit of Mercy.  Our Baptism and the Sacrament of Reconciliation allow grace to flow.  Confirmation fills us with the Spirit of Mercy.  Eucharist is the enduring Presence of the Lord of Mercy Whose suffering, death and Resurrection won our Redemption.  The Anointing of the Sick, which we celebrate today, offers healing and strength at the moment went we most know the need for Mercy.  Holy Orders and Holy Matrimony are living signs of the personal gift of Mercy through one another in the service of the Kingdom.

Let us open our hearts to Mercy and respond to the invitation of Divine Mercy Sunday to bring about a world that knows its salvation comes through Jesus Christ, our merciful Lord.

A Word from Your Pastor April 16 - Easter Sunday

Dear Parishioners:

A Blessed Easter to all!  Today we rejoice in the gift of the Resurrection and the New Life that Jesus offers us.  Alleluia springs forth and draws us into God’s own joy in the salvation Christ has won for us.  We gather together to acknowledge our Faith that in Jesus God has conquered death and offered us a remedy for sin.

There is a special message for us in the way the Church celebrates Easter.  For us, Easter is one day, three days that are four, a week and a day, a season of 50 days, and 52 days a year.  It is not a one-time reality. 

The one day for the celebration of Easter finds its place in the calendar by a complex formula: it is established as the first Sunday on or after the first full moon of the vernal, that is Spring, equinox.  This was set by the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325.  So it is one day in the year that then tells us when other feasts will come.

Easter has a Triduum, a period of three days, that include four separate days in our way of measuring days: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.  The count of three days is found by following the Jewish day from sunset to sunset.

The Solemnity of Easter is celebrated as an Octave, a week and a day, that culminates with Divine Mercy Sunday.

The Easter Season begins with Easter Sunday and goes to Pentecost – 50 days.

Finally, every Sunday is observed as a little Easter.  This is the reason that the Sundays of Lent are not counted in the 40 days assigned to Lent.

From this, we can begin to see just how important Easter is considered for us.  It is the beginning of the New Life God has promised.  In Easter time, we taste something of Eternity.  I invite you to live Easter to the full!

This week, I will be on retreat with the priests of the Focolare Movement.  Please keep us in your prayers.  Next weekend, we will celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday with Anointing of the Sick at all Masses and with Adoration and the Divine Mercy Devotion following the Noon Mass.  All are welcome to share with us the boundless Mercy of the God Who raised Jesus from the dead.

A Word from Your Pastor April 9 - Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

Dear Parishioners:

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord begins Holy Week.  The procession with palms  before Mass and the proclamation of the Passion of the Lord (this year from Matthew’s Gospel), we enter into our celebration of the great Love of God shown to us through Jesus.  We have journeyed through Lent and now we are plunged into the Paschal Mystery, the power of the Life, Suffering, Death and Resurrection of the Lord.  Participation in this week is such a gift. 

I pray that many of you will decide to live this week fully.  Don’t let it pass you by.

Plan to be with the whole Diocese of Columbus on Tuesday evening at the Chrism Mass at St. Joseph Cathedral.  The priests of the Diocese and the bishop renew our commitment to our responsibility as shepherds.  The bishop blesses the oils used for the Sacraments in the next year – the Oil of Catechumens, the Oil of the Sick and Sacred Chrism.

Holy Thursday reminds us of the Last Supper and includes the Washing of Feet and a Eucharistic Procession.  At St. Timothy, our First Communion class serves as an Honor Guard for the procession. Adoration follows until midnight.

Good Friday brings the Passion according to John, the Veneration of the Cross and Holy Communion with hosts consecrated at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.  We also have Stations of the Cross and the Seven Last Words between Noon and 3 p.m., when the Lord breathed His last.

Holy Saturday will bring our Easter Egg Hunt in the morning and the Solemn Vigil of Easter in the evening, with celebration of the Sacraments of Initiation, Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist for new members of the Church.

Easter Sunday will be a day to welcome the many who rejoice with us that Jesus is Risen. 

With the events of the Easter Triduum – Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday – we begin the Easter Season, which will last 50 days until Pentecost.  The first week – the Octave of Easter – will culminate in the observance of Divine Mercy Sunday, a day of many graces for the Church and for the whole world.

As we enter into the wonderful liturgies of this week, may we open our hearts to the power of the Holy Spirit make us witnesses of the Gospel so that many may come to know Jesus through us.

* * * * * * *

Take note of the schedule for Holy Week and make plans to be part of these “High Holy Days” of our Catholic Faith: Events of Holy Week and Easter 2017Tuesday, April 11, Chrism Mass at St. Joseph Cathedral at 6 p.m.

Holy Thursday, April 13, Mass of the Lord’s Supper, at 7:30 p.m.,
followed by procession and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament until Midnight

Good Friday, April 14 Stations and 7 Last Words at 12 p.m.
Good Friday Services at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Reading of the Passion, Veneration of the Cross and Holy Communion

Holy Saturday, April 15, Easter Vigil at 8:30 p.m.

Easter Sunday, April 16 Easter Masses 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.

Divine Mercy Sunday: Anointing of the Sick at all Parish Masses,
Saturday 5 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.

Divine Mercy Devotion Sunday April 23 – 12-3 p.m.

A Word from Your Pastor April 2 - Fifth Sunday of Lent

Dear Parishioners:

Life and Resurrection in the face of this world’s limits are the themes of the fifth Sunday of Lent.  Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life.  In our experience of this world, we discover that there is always an end limit.  Jesus makes known to us that He understands this reality for us, but that He is the way to a deeper experience of Reality, the Truth that Eternity beckons and promises New Life.

When we find ourselves closed in by suffering and death and by our own way of thinking about ourselves and about the world around us, the Spirit of Jesus promises to breathe newness into us.  Our graves are opened and we rise when we respond to the Lord’s Word as He calls us out of the tomb.  Freedom comes when we acknowledge that change is possible and that what seemed to be end limits are really the threshold to a new way of life.

Our parish has experienced something very powerful in the Alpha Program.  All who have participated are to be commended in their willingness to try something new.  The evening sessions on Sundays, the retreat day away, and the conversations that have opened up at the table and in the myriad of encounters Alpha has made possible have all served to remind us of the power of the Kerygma, that is, the Message of the Gospel.  We look forward to the new life that will come into our parish that flows from the encounter with Jesus and His Spirit that Alpha has offered.

Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet.  Jesus tells us Himself that He is the Alpha and the Omega.  May the beginning we have made in Alpha continue on as our first session of the program comes to its close on Palm Sunday.

Events of Holy Week and Easter 2017 at St. Timothy Church
April 8-9, Palm Sunday Mass of the Passion of the Lord with procession at all Masses
Saturday 5 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.

Tuesday, April 11, Chrism Mass at St. Joseph Cathedral at 6 p.m.

Holy Thursday, April 13, Mass of the Lord’s Supper, at 7:30 p.m.,
followed by procession and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament until Midnight

Good Friday, April 14 Stations and 7 Last Words at 12 p.m.
Good Friday Services at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Reading of the Passion, Veneration of the Cross and Holy Communion

Holy Saturday, April 15, Easter Vigil at 8:30 p.m.

Easter Sunday, April 16 Easter Masses 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.

Divine Mercy Sunday: Anointing of the Sick at all Parish Masses,
Saturday 5 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.
Divine Mercy Devotion Sunday April 23 – 12-3 p.m.