From the Pastor - 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

January 28, 2022

How do I know if the Time, Talent and Treasure I offer God in grateful return is “enough?” What is the measure?

 

St. Paul tells us in the Second Reading today — the “measure” is the love that we put into each of these aspects of our lives. “If I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own and hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.” God is not after a particular number. What He wants us to give over to Him is our very selves.

 

Real love is not a sentiment. Real love is manifested in living a virtuous life. We read later in St. Paul’s letter that real love takes strength: it is patient, kind, humble, other-centered, truth-seeking, and long-suffering. Love is the heroic giving of oneself even when it is uncomfortable; especially then. Love looks like Jesus. It lives like Jesus.

 

Sometimes, living like Jesus is difficult. We see this in the Gospel Reading today where we find Jesus in action, preaching in the synagogue in His hometown. He speaks truth to the people He loves, the ones He grew up with and shared His early days with. How do they respond? They are filled with fury and run Him out of town, intent on throwing Him from a cliff! Yet Jesus is undeterred. He passes right through them and presses forward with the mission His Father has entrusted to Him.

 

We are called to live with this same strength and determination, fueled by the power of love and by gratitude for all God has given us. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2022

 

Pastoral Pondering – Continuing our consideration of parish apostolates that strengthen marriage and family, this week I would like to highlight Teams of Our Lady. The following description is taken from their official website (www.teamsofourlady.org):

 

Teams of Our Lady is an international lay movement in the Catholic Church, designed to enrich marriage spirituality and make good marriages better. Teams provide a proven method of increasing and improving prayer life, which will help couples grow closer to God and each other. At the same time, their family will reap the benefits as well.

 

A team is comprised of five to seven couples whose marriage is recognized in the eyes of the Catholic Church. The team meets one time per month, rotating from one home to another. If a couple’s home cannot accommodate the entire team, the group can meet in a church meeting room or outside, if possible. Some teams might have a spiritual counselor or Priest Spiritual Counselor as part of their team. The Priest Spiritual Counselor comes to the meeting to provide his theological knowledge and expertise. The team shares a simple meal, prayer, sharing on the endeavors, and a study topic. The endeavors are the heart of the spirit of Teams. The team becomes a close community that can inspire one another through their living examples of faith, and share with one another their struggles and successes on their way to holiness.

 

"The Teams of our Lady, a gift of the Holy Spirit, is offered to couples throughout the world in order to help them live out their married spirituality.” (The Guide of the Teams of Our Lady). Couples from all stages of life (newly married, child rearing and empty nesters) can be part of Teams. It is not parish-based, but it is advisable for couples to live in the same geographic vicinity. Since this is a lay association, lay couples hold all positions of responsibility.

 

The Blessed Mother
 

The Blessed Mother is the Patroness of the Movement. We strive to follow and imitate Mary’s “yes” to God through prayer, scripture and the sacraments. Mary is the perfect disciple and follower of Christ. She takes everything and everyone to her Son. The Magnificat prayer is Mary’s proclamation of God’s greatness. Teams couples say the Magnificat prayer daily in communion with fellow Team members worldwide.

 

What Teams of Our Lady is Not

1.   It is not a Marian Movement, but Mary is our patroness.

2.   It is not a Bible study, but we read Scripture and learn about God.

3.   It is not a therapy group, but we share and support each other on our life journey toward Christ.

4.   It is not for counseling. Everything is held in strict confidence and all sharing is voluntary. We offer advice only if it is requested (usually done in private).

5.   It is not for troubled marriages. The Church offers other programs to help with serious marital issues. One such recommended program is Retrouvaille.

6.   It is not a supper club.

 

For more information about Teams of Our Lady, contact Tom and Danielle Mathis at tmathis3@me.com.

 

From the Pastor

From the Pastor - 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

By John Putnam • August 14, 2026
Today's Gospel from Matthew reminds us to trust the Lord even when it seems He is not answering our prayers. God desires to lead us to the joy of heaven and eternal life with Him. To prepare us for that day, He calls us to grow in faith and to live each day as a grateful response to His goodness. In other words, He is forming us into saints. This is what the stewardship way of life is meant to accomplish. At times that process is difficult. Often, it stretches us beyond our comfort. Jesus certainly challenged the Canaanite woman in today's Gospel. She cried out to Him on behalf of her daughter, who was tormented by a demon. How did Jesus respond to this desperate mother's plea? At first, He "did not say a word in answer to her." Undeterred, she continued to seek Him, and He continued to test her faith. She responded with such remarkable trust that Jesus proclaimed, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." Imagine hearing those words spoken to us by our Lord. There could be no greater affirmation of a life lived in faithful discipleship. The stewardship way of life will test our trust in God at times. But those are often the moments when He is doing His greatest work within us. Let us persevere in faith, trusting that His plan is always leading us toward the joy He has prepared for us. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2026. Pastoral Pondering As the school year begins and we move into the post-summer routine, I wanted to give you an update on a few things which may be of interest to you. Building projects The rectory build is going well. Grainda Builders are projecting the project to finish by November (I am hoping for earlier!). We do plan to have an open house so that folks can see the new rectory upon its completion. The preliminary work for the second phase of our building projects is occurring with the installation of the water lines that will feed the new buildings. This will hopefully be done by Labor Day. We should be able to hold a groundbreaking shortly after the first of the year. Everything depends on when the present rectory sells and where we are with funding. The Diocese requires 60% of the project to be in cash, 30% to be in pledges and 30% allowable for Diocesan loan. We will keep you posted. Obviously, as we move forward, there will be growing pains that cannot be avoided due to the disruption of some parking. We are working with the general contractor to keep disruptions to a minimum, but we cannot avoid all of them. Thank you for your patience. Church Maintenance  As many of you know, we have been battling issues with the church roof for some time. There have been numerous leaks over the years that have been patched and patched again. We have been battling the insurance company for over a year, and it is clear that, after a minimal payment to repair water damage, they are not going to approve a claim for roof replacement. Kudos to the Pastoral Council and Scott Bruno for making a significant investment of time and energy to try to do the groundwork to provide justification for the claim. With that being said, we have already replaced a portion of the roof that was causing significant problems (the lower roof closest to the driveway). Nonetheless, the whole roof really does need to be replaced. Estimates for replacement are in the neighborhood of $250K. At present with the other projects going on, we do not have this in reserves or the operating account to cover this expense. Should you wish to assist, donations can be made on the website. We will continue to monitor and do what we can to manage the problem until we are able to fully address it. The second significant issue that has arisen is the foundation of the Kerin Center. Over the last several years, due to water and drainage issues, we have had to address foundation instability. Reinforcements were added a couple of years back to the school-side of the building, but we have been seeing some issues on the church-side of the building over the past year. We are watching it very carefully and trying to ascertain the root cause of the problems. We are appreciative of those parishioners with engineering expertise who have assisted in this effort. There is also a link on the parish donation website for Kerin Center repairs.

From the Pastor - 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

By John Putnam • August 7, 2026
Stewardship spirituality invites us to surrender control of our lives to God in grateful recognition that everything we have is a gift from Him. Today's readings remind us that God is always in control of His creation and His people. They also reveal what can happen when we fully entrust our lives to Him — in other words, when we embrace the stewardship way of life. When we take our eyes off God, we lose sight of the fact that all is gift. We begin to rely on ourselves instead of trusting in Him, and we fail to make our lives a grateful response to His generosity. Peter experiences this in today's Gospel from Matthew. Jesus sends the disciples ahead of Him by boat. Later that evening, Jesus comes to them, walking on the water, and invites Peter to join Him. Peter steps out of the boat and begins walking toward the Lord. But when he notices the strong wind around him, instead of keeping his eyes on Christ, he begins to sink. Imagine if Peter had never looked away from Jesus. What an extraordinary adventure he would have experienced walking on the water with his Lord. The same is true for us. When we take our eyes off Christ, His countless blessings, and His faithful love for us, we begin to sink as well. But when we embrace the stewardship way of life, loosening our grip on our time, talents, and treasure and placing our trust in God, life becomes a great adventure rooted firmly in the One who never fails us. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2026. Pastoral Pondering First of all I want to thank all who participated in our meal packing effort last Friday and Saturday. What a gift it is to be able to come together as a community and unite for the sake of our brothers and sisters in need. These events cannot happen without the efforts of numerous people. To each of you who made it possible, THANK YOU! As we move into August and our lives begin reorienting from lazier summer months towards fall, it is an opportunity to reflect on the blessings that we were afforded to rest, refresh, and renew during these past weeks. Hopefully, family were able to spend some quality time with each other without the demands of school, work and the day to day demands that impact many of us.  For me, I was privileged once again to participate in the Te Deum Peace Pilgrimage to Fatima. This year we were able to invite and sponsor nine (9) seminarians from various dioceses including Charlotte, NC; Charleston, SC; Cleveland, OH; and Youngstown, OH. They along with a wonderful group of non-seminarian pilgrims were able to grow in our love for the Lord and Our Lady. It was a true blessing, and I was so impressed with the seminarians who were a part of our pilgrimage family for our time in Portugal and Spain. Along the same lines, please pray for parishioner Mark Pressley who is entering St. Joseph College Seminary. Mark’s family has been a part of the parish for many years. Keep him and the other nine (9) young men who are beginning their formation this fall.