Dear Friends,
The readings for the 24th Sunday, OT, Year C invite us to savor the fact that our God treasures each one of us, that we each matter to Him immensely. Though often we become “stiff-necked” and rebelliously running away from God, our God runs after us in search of us and His joy knows no bounds when He finds us. How can we cherish this reality of a loving God? This is done chiefly in our families and in our parish by teaching our children about our own experience of God. This is supremely achieved by Catechesis. General Directory for Catechesis explains what it is by saying: “Catechesis is nothing other than the process of transmitting the Gospel, as the Christian community has received it, understands it, celebrates it, lives it and communicates it in many ways.” (#105).
Today we begin our Faith Formation Program for our lovely children for the year 2019-2020. We are so grateful to God for the rich soil He continues provide for us to sow the seeds of faith to our Children. This is a very important responsibility given to each parish community and each member of the parish is obligated to contribute toward this task of transmitting the Gospel. Each of us is called to be a “missionary disciple” spreading the joy of the Gospel. It is without a doubt a privilege, right, and responsibility derived from our Baptism. Our Faith Formation Program is intended to invigorate and enkindle in our children a deeper love for Jesus Christ and we intend to do it in a way that is extremely fun loving and exceedingly thought provoking. We intend to create a culture of encounter in which the children will be led to know, love and serve Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
In order for this to happen, we need so many hands. The clergy or the staff alone cannot accomplish this extremely important component of our parish life. Those “many hands” comprise of many of our volunteers who step up to help in various ministries of the parish. I am extremely grateful to all of them. Without their consistent, deliberate, and strenuous efforts we will never be able to reach out and serve so large a parish family as St. John the Evangelist Catholic Community. Rightly did Saint Pope John Paul II say that “among the laity who become evangelizers, catechists have a place of honor,” (Redemptoris missio,73). Today in a very particular manner I wish to thank our Catechists and their assistants. They have been rendering a very challenging and behind the scene ministry with a smiling face. Thank You dear Catechists!
Today we celebrate Catechetical Sunday and it is a good moment to reflect on the quintessential role of Catechists and what they do to keep our faith alive. Catechists are those who have fallen in love with Jesus Christ and are thus filled with a sense of purpose in their lives and are impelled to pass on their personal experience of Christ to others. In a parish context they accomplish this purpose by teaching our children about our Trinitarian God and about the Sacraments and the Catholic Church according to the prescribed materials duly approved by the church. By doing this they initiate our children into the faith of the church, into its life, its worship, its symbols and practices. Catechesis involves a deepening of one’s personal conversion to the Person of Christ and of his Church. Given the vitally important role the Catechists play we need to pray for all those who will be rendering this service to our parish; we need to pray for the parents of these children that they may give God His due by bringing them to these classes without fail; and we pray for our children that they keep their hearts and minds open to receiving God’s graces through these moments of encounter.
Today, the 15th September we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows who is the Patroness of the Congregation of Holy Cross to which Fr. John Patrick and I belong. It is so wonderful to have a courtyard honoring our Mother of Sorrows. On this day I would like to thank our Council of Catholic Women of our parish for their tireless effort in keeping this lovely place of gathering and prayer very clean and tidy. Every day without fail they have been cleaning and wiping the benches. A special thanks to all the women who are dedicated to this lovely ministry. Thanks, are also due to Fran and Mark Majcher for their dedication to the upkeep of the garden and the flowers. Our women strive to keep this location as inviting and inspiring a place as you can imagine. KUDOS to our CCW.
Prayer for Catechists
O God, our Heavenly Father, you have given us the gift of these catechists to be heralds of the Gospel to our parish family. We lift them up to you in thanksgiving and intercede for them concerning their hopes and needs.
May we be attentive to the presence of your Word in them, a Word that lifts up and affirms, calls forth and challenges, is compassionate and consoles. We pray that our parish family will always be blessed with those who have responded to the call to share in Christ’s prophetic mission as catechists. May we too be open to the universal call to service that Christ addresses to all of his disciples, contributing our gifts to the communion of faith, the Church. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Be Blessed!
Have a great week!
Love
Fr. John