A Word from Your Pastor March 18

The Fifth Sunday of Lent indicates that we are moving right along in our journey toward Easter.  We have experienced many exciting steps along the way.  Last weekend, Alpha’s “Day Away” retreat was very moving for all who were present.  The call to seeing as Christ sees was heard by all and hearts opened to the Spirit of Jesus, Who is always at work among us.  This weekend, we hear the call to Life.  Jesus, Who Is the Resurrection and the Life offers us the invitation to live this life and the next to the full.  Faith frees us to live not according to the standards of the world, but according to God’s plan for us.

This year, I was invited to join the Focolare community for a retreat as the members from the east regions of the United States and Canada gather at Mariapolis Luminosa in Hyde Park, New York.  This is a gathering of all the various members, including men and women focolarini and families and priests who are associated with the movement.  I am pleased to be able to participate with them as a kind of reunion with the folks who hosted my sabbatical last fall.  I will also be part of the usual priests’ retreat after Easter.

God has chosen to share His own inner Life with us, the Life of the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit Who Live in Unity at the very heart of Reality.  My prayer this weekend is that we may all grow in the Unity that comes from God so that the world may come to know Jesus, Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Thanks to all who are filling in for me while I am away, especially Msgr. George Schlegel and the Dominican Father Stephen Dominic Hayes, “the other Father Hayes” in the Diocese of Columbus.  Blessings to you all.  May you experience ever more profoundly the invitation to the Abundant Life offered to us by Jesus Christ.

A Word from Your Pastor March 11

The theme of light and sight marks the Fourth Sunday of Lent.  We are called to see the world with the eyes of God.  This is not easy to do.  Our vision is shaped by our own limited human experiences, often tainted by our selfishness and sin and the wounds that life has dealt us.  The invitation to see as God sees is the call of Wisdom.  We are capable of seeing and loving as God Sees and Loves.  The Spirit of God can open our eyes, if we will cooperate.

In order to see truly, we must step out of ourselves.  We must learn to allow others into our hearts.  God has something more to offer us, but He has set things up so that it will be given to us only if we are willing to pass it on.  The Light of God is Light from Light.  In God’s Light, we see light.  This is a profound way of living.  It makes all the difference.  Being bathed in the Light of God makes all our human understanding closer to darkness than to that Light.

As Lent moves on, we continue our journey to Easter.  Prayer, fasting and almsgiving serve us as a way of formation in the Gospel.  Let us persevere.

A Word from Your Pastor March 4

When we allow ourselves to experience silence and a depth of prayer that arises from our hearts, we discover that there is a longing, a desire, a dream, a hope for something more.  In the face of the limitations we encounter in the world, this inner hunger, thirst, zeal is not quenched, but strengthened.  The violence that we see around us comes from the simple truth that we have lost our way as a culture.  We no longer know how to “tame” what we find inside.  We make choices that fail to satisfy.

The Third Sunday of Lent is always a reminder to us that the hunger and thirst that we experience in the heat of the day has a fountain that can fill us and show us a new way of being.  We can open our hearts for a new zeal for God’s House that consumes us by taking us into a deeper relationship with the Living God.

The St. Timothy Spaghetti dinner, which we experience each year on the first Sunday of March, is one of the two events we are best known for.  (The other, of course, is the Parish Festival  - July 13 and 14 this year.)  It serves to satisfy an earthly hunger, and shows us how to work together to accomplish something that feeds a greater community.

I have been told that the first spaghetti dinner at St. Timothy was a “mixer” for the men of the parish, who used it to raise funds for needs of the parish in the early days, by selling raffle tickets to each attendee.  It lasted only one year as a men’s event.  The wives of the first members of the Men’s Club told them they wanted to be part of it.  And the rest is history.  Each couple was sold a raffle ticket and the funds were to be shared by the Men’s Club and the Women’s Club of the parish.

In its current incarnation, the Spaghetti Dinner receives high praise from parishioners and from our friends and neighbors all around the area.  Some families use it as an annual gathering and a celebration of special events.  We welcome all!

May the wonderful odor of spaghetti sauce fill your day today and may the deepest longings of your heart be satisfied by Jesus, Who fills us with Living Water if we ask.

A Word from Your Pastor February 25 - Confirmation Sunday

Come, Holy Spirit! 

This weekend, we welcome Bishop Campbell as he imparts the Gift of the Spirit through the Sacrament of Confirmation to be received by our 8^th Grade class.  As the Church celebrates the Second Sunday of Lent and hears about the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor, we pray for an outpouring of the Spirit among us by the ministry of our own apostolic leader.

Peter, James and John see Jesus in a glorified state as Moses and Elijah reveal the connection between Jesus’ Passion and Salvation History.  The People of God in every age are led by the Spirit on a journey of Faith.  The Law and the Prophets foretold the coming of the Messiah as the bearer of the Spirit.  Our journey continues and we seek to keep our eyes fixed on the glory that is promised.  May we open our hearts to the guidance of the Spirit and allow God to reveal His glory in us.

The Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary, also called the Mysteries of Light, which were suggested as an addition to the Rosary by Pope Saint John Paul II, include the Mystery of the Transfiguration as the Mystery of Light par excellence.  Meditation on this Mystery reminds us that God’s glory is shared with our human nature.  When the Apostles see Jesus transfigured, they are given a new understanding of Who He Is and the experience is meant to strengthen them in the ordeal of the Passion.  They do not understand right away, but after the Resurrection, it is the Holy Spirit that helps them to put it all together, and they remember the Transfiguration as a first glimpse of the glory of the Risen Lord and of the high destiny of our human nature.

Let us pay close attention to the promptings of the Spirit in the days and weeks and months ahead on our continuing journey of Lent.  When Easter comes, may we be ready to soar with the Spirit into the New Life God has in store for us in Jesus Christ.