From the Parochial Vicar - 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

June 30, 2019

From the Parochial Vicar - 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

After the joy of Easter, Pentecost, and the last two Sunday’s feasts of the Trinity and Eucharist, today we have returned to “Ordinary” Sundays. Instead of thinking about Ordinary Time as a “not-so-special” time of year, we should think of it as “ordinal” Sundays. We count the Sundays throughout the year as we journey with Christ throughout his three years of public ministry. These are the “ordinary” moments of Christ’s life in which his disciples followed him and learned from him as he journeyed and taught.

In today’s Gospel, Christ responds in a puzzling way to someone who wants to be his disciple: “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” Foxes and birds build their homes simply by making use of what they find daily. They don’t employ an architect or a contractor. They scrounge up little bits of lint, find some twigs, and pick up some pine needles they come across. They make the most of the daily things that creation provides.

We can learn from the foxes and birds by making the most of the daily blessings our Creator provides. Our Lord doesn’t have a place to rest his head in our hearts because we make our hearts about many things. We try to compartmentalize our relationship with him to a certain part of the day or a certain place (“I already had my prayer time today, and I can’t bother to stop right now and praise him or ask him for what I need” or “I’ll grow in my love of Jesus on Sunday when I’m at church”). Throughout the day as we go from activity to activity, we should try to practice a greater recollection in order to identify the gifts, blessings, and graces that the Lord shares with us during our ordinary activity. That way, “ordinary” becomes extraordinary as we see how cooperating with his will orders our heart towards his glory. Then Our Lord can say, the heart of that Christian is a place where I may make my home and rest my head.

Thank You

The process of a priest’s transfer can seem very shrouded in the eyes of the lay faithful. One week a priest is talking about the future of some program or apostolate and the next week he is announcing his departure. Each year in the Diocese of Charlotte, the bishop requests input from his priests about their assignments. We have a chance to let him know how our current assignment is going and make certain requests if we are seeking a transfer. A priest’s obedience to his bishop is not a military-style, blind obedience. It is a filial obedience that implies trust and detachment. Two years ago, upon returning from my studies in Rome, I received a phone call, “If you are offered the position of pastor at __________, will you accept it?” I was never offered that parish and was assigned to St. Mark. And for these past two years, I am incredibly grateful. I could have been made a pastor two years ago, but I see how God in his good providence wanted me to experience for my own sanctification and maturation this wonderful parish community.

Serving with Fr. John and Fr. Becker has been a blessing to my priesthood and growth. They are wonderfully kind, cheerful, and very patient with me. Fr. John and I had a feeling that I would be transferred this year, and he said to me at one-point last fall, “You need your own parish. You are wasting your gifts here.” He didn’t mean that as a put-down or that I wasn’t making a difference. In fact, I was very humbled by that. I would very much be delighted to stay at St. Mark, but that would be a selfish request. A priest of 25+ years and a man who had known me since I was in middle school was telling me that I was ready to be a pastor. That instills great confidence, certainly. Fr. Becker also has been very supportive in this transition. His words were, “Gooder. It’s about time.” Granted, his reaction is biased because he will no longer be the “junior vicar,” he gets my car space in the garage, and he will no longer have the “on-call” line 90% of the week. In all honesty, though, I hope that his experience accompanying a newly ordained priest in his first assignment is as inspirational and rewarding as it was for me to walk with him in his first two years of priesthood.

To each and every household at St. Mark, I want to say thank you. You have been a great blessing to my priesthood. Fr. Becker quoted, I think, St. Augustine in one of his first homilies at St. Mark: “For you I am a priest, with you I am a Christian.” Yes, I have given my life to minister at the altar of God and be a priest for the Church and the salvation of souls, but alongside you I am a fellow Christian man in need of salvation. I have been humbled and inspired by those of you who have invited me to share in your lives and welcomed me into your homes. I am energized by the families and individuals who take their faith to the streets, their jobs, their schools, and their friendships in a way that draws others to love Jesus more. I am grateful for the hundreds of people who have been saying, “We’re gonna miss you.” In reality, I’m going to miss you. I’m going to miss St. Mark Church. There is the excitement of becoming a pastor for the first time, but I would be lying if I said that there isn’t a profound grief in my heart as I face the reality of leaving such a vibrant community of faith.

I want you to remember one thing: a parish is not a vibrant community of faith because of its priests. A parish truly is alive when each individual chooses to live in Christ and for Christ. That is why I do not worry about you as I leave; I know each of you will continue choosing Christ and seeking to dwell in a deeper communion with him. Yes, priests at St. Mark come and go. Don’t forget, however, that they are living instruments in the hand of God for your sanctification. But you are the parish and, by living freely as sons and daughters of the living God, the parish becomes what God intends it to be: a city set on a hill and toward which all come for life-giving water.

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.