From the Pastor - 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

November 1, 2024

Today’s Gospel presents Jesus’ teachings on the two greatest commandments. Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. Let’s consider these “greatest commandments” as they relate to three aspects of a Christian steward’s daily life — the giving of our time, talent, and treasure. 


The use of time refers primarily to our relationship with the Lord — in other words, our prayer life. Since time is a gift to me from God, I show my love for Him and my gratitude for this gift by giving Him the best portion of my time. Of course, it is vital to talk to God throughout the day, but if I really want to love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, shouldn’t I make time for God “first” on my agenda each day? Not as an afterthought, but as a time I have intentionally chosen to spend only with Him. 


The use of talents refers to the way I offer the abilities, skills, and interests the Lord has given me for the good of those around me. Doing so is a practical way to “love my neighbor as myself.” At the same time, it is also a way to love the Lord with all that I am and have, since He has told us that whatever we do for others we are also doing for Him. 


The use material gifts — or treasure — likewise demonstrates both love of God and of neighbor. When I trustingly offer a sacrificial gift to God through the offertory collection, I am showing Him in a very tangible way that He comes before all else in my life and I am putting my material resources at the service of my neighbor in the parish community and beyond. 


When we live for God and others, we are living a stewardship way of life. And like the wise scribe in today’s Gospel, we are moving closer to the kingdom of God, our ultimate destination. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2024

 

Pastoral Pondering

The month of November is set aside in a special way to pray for the souls of the Faithful Departed. Oftentimes at funerals, homilies and sermons are focused on consoling the family, and this is certainly commendable. However, the primary reason for the Mass of Christian Burial is to pray for the soul of the deceased. Our hope for someone who has died is that they are beholding the Beatific Vision in heaven, but, in truth, this is only a hope. Hence, our prayers and sacrifices are important so that those souls who died with lingering attachments to this world and incomplete reparation for forgiven sins can be aided in their purification.


While those who have fallen asleep in the faith of Christ can no longer assist themselves, they can and do pray for us. There are countless testimonies by the saints who recount how the Holy Souls assist those who prayed for them during their earthly journey. Hence, praying for the faithful departed, a spiritual work of mercy, should be a part of our regularly routine of prayer.


Finally, with election day on Tuesday I wanted to offer a website that provides greater and more nuanced information about issues and candidates. Last week’s guide was not nuanced, and I did not vet enough beforehand. Hopefully this one corrects that. Many folks have already voted, and that is a good thing. The obligation to vote and exercise our civic duty is mentioned clearly in the Catechism. Choosing the candidates deserving of our votes takes prayer and discernment and a well-formed conscience. Last week’s bulletin provided some links to the USCCB and other resources regarding moral priorities. This link simply expands on those. As we prepare for election day, please pray for the country that we receive the leaders that we need. For the link, if you are not looking at this digitally, you can search for the title below.

 

National Catholic Register Voter Guide: https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/2024-voters-guide

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.