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From the Pastor – 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sep 15, 2019

From the Pastor – 24 th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s readings focus on the personal, passionate and merciful love of God, which should fill us with unending gratitude to Him. This gratitude is the fuel that keeps the stewardship way of life rolling along.

In our Second Reading, from St. Paul’s letter to Timothy, we find a grateful Paul who says of himself, “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and arrogant, but I have been mercifully treated.” St. Paul is well aware of the sins he has committed. But this does not hold him back from ministry. Rather, it makes him all the more grateful to be God’s steward. How encouraging to know that this is true for us, as well. Our past sins, and even our present struggles, do not disqualify us from becoming God’s grateful stewards.

Jesus gives us several poignant illustrations of His merciful love in today’s Gospel reading from Luke. Let us focus on one in particular — the story of the lost sheep. He asks, “What man among you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine… and go after the lost one until he finds it?”

The logical response is no one! It simply does not make sense to spend time and energy searching for one lost sheep when there are so many others to tend to. But God’s logic — God’s mercy — defies human logic. And who is the lost one? It is every one of us when we stray away from God through sin, great or small.

What gratitude we owe to such a personal, passionate, loving God! Just think, even our sins, once forgiven, become a source of fuel for our stewardship way of life as we reflect with deep gratitude on the powerful mercy of our Savior. ©Catholic Stewardship Consultants

Pastoral Pondering

I want to thank all of those who attended, and especially those who assisted with the Eucharistic Congress last weekend. It is such a wonderful event and a tremendous opportunity to come together as a local Church to celebrate faith and to offer God fitting worship and praise.

Last week I discussed the mission of the parish, why we exist. This week I want to focus on the two principal bodies that help me as pastor implement that vision, the Pastoral Council and the Finance Council. In order to understand the roles of these two councils, it’s helpful to understand how the Church understands parish. Canon law understands a parish to be, in general, a territory that embraces all of the Christian faithful who live within that territory which is entrusted to a pastor who is responsible for its pastoral care. Usually, when we think of a parish, we think of those who are registered or attend the parish. Actually, however, the Church envisions the parish as including everyone who live within the territory, whether registered or not and whether Catholic or not. The parish exercises this responsibility through works of social justice and sharing the message of the Gospel.

While the pastor is especially entrusted with leading the mission of the parish, he does not carry out this task in isolation. Every member of the Christian faithful, the baptized, have a responsibility of sharing in the mission of the Church and fulfilling the role of the parish. This task is especially expressed in the work of the Pastoral and Finance Councils.

The main role of the Pastoral Council is to bring concerns that affect the whole parish to the pastor’s attention. The Council also develops and implements a Parish Pastoral Plan through which those things that impact the whole parish are addressed.

The Finance Council assists the pastor in the administration of parish temporal matters. The universal law of the Church requires every parish to have a Finance Council. The Council is especially responsible for supporting the pastor in his stewardship of parish resources while being accountable to the parish and the Diocesan bishop. This accountability is primarily carried out through regular review of parish finances and regular reporting of those activities to the parish and the Diocese.

The Pastoral and Finance Councils work cooperatively to implement the goals and objectives outlined in the Pastoral Plan. The Finance Council does this through guiding the budgetary process and insuring that the parish budget is a faithful expression of the values set forth in the Pastoral Plan of the parish.

Over the years I have found both of the Councils to be invaluable in assisting me to carry out the pastoral mandate entrusted to the pastor. While some do, most pastors do not have the expertise to fulfill all that the Church expects of him. Hence, the assistance of the laity who have various talents and charisms is essential to effective pastoral ministry.

Our Pastoral and Finance Councils here at St. Mark are a great help to me. The members offer insight and advise that I have found to be invaluable. The ability of the Council members to collaborate with staff in implementing the pastoral plan is really the key to insuring that we, as a parish, are being faithful to why we are here. John Benson is the chair of our Pastoral Council and Coley O’Shaughnessey is the chair of our Finance Council. If you have questions about either council or would be interested in serving in the future, please feel free to reach out to any one of us.

From the Pastor

From the Pastor - Sixth Sunday of Easter

By John Putnam • 03 May, 2024
Our readings today call us to love as Christ loves. In our Gospel, Jesus says, “Love one another as I have loved you.” The ways Jesus has loved us and continues to love us are endless. We are called to imitate this love. And He tells us the greatest way to do this when He said, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” It is difficult to live that out in our humanity. Yet, it is made much easier when we faithfully love Christ. The fact of the matter is, as our love for Christ increases, so too does our capacity to love others. There are countless moments when we can do just that — for instance, waking up Saturday morning to attend daily Mass instead of sleeping in, or talking to God in the car on the way to work instead of listening to music. These are simple ways to express our love for the Lord by laying down our lives for Him. The more we find ways to love the Lord, the more we will find it easier to put aside our selfishness and serve others. Christ’s command to love others may seem daunting. Yet, Christ would never ask something of us that we cannot live out. All we need to do is take baby steps. Ask yourself, "How can I better love Jesus right now?" for it is in loving Christ that we will better love others, and it is in loving others that we love Christ Himself. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2024 Pastoral Pondering  Last week I had the opportunity of spending the afternoon with my childhood pastor, the Reverend Fred Thompson. He served as the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Newton, NC for over 30 years. He is now 91 years old and continues to live a fairly independent life. We lost touch when my family moved from Newton to Hickory as I began grammar school but reconnected during my undergraduate studies at Lenoir-Rhyne College. We have stayed in touch since then. Such connections from the past are very important. At least in my case, Fred knew things about my parents and my adoption that I never did, and he is always happy to share a story or two. I bring this up because memory, what we refer to in the Mass as anamnesis, is essential not only to our faith but to society as a whole. Our collective memory is important. Significant events of the past are passed on from one generation to the next, and we hopefully learn from our mistakes so that we don’t repeat them. In the Catholic context, we are being obedient to Christ’s command at the Last Supper, do this in memory of me.” And it is through that remembrance that we cannot the past with the present and look with hope to the future – Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. This is why Sacred Tradition is so very important to our understanding of the Faith. That which is handed over (traditio) is essential because it forms the framework upon which the Church travels throughout the centuries. The same is true in families. In the past multiple generations would live together or in close proximity to each other. Children learned about life from a variety of family members with varying degrees of lived experience and a wealth of memory. With our society becoming more transitory and human interaction being impoverished by the reality of technology, families need to be very intentional about connecting with the past. It helps us all understand who we are, why we are here and for what we were made.

From the Pastor - Fifth Sunday of Easter

By John Putnam • 26 Apr, 2024
Our readings today teach us what it means to bear fruit as disciples of Christ. We hear in each of our readings that it is from the Lord that good effects will be produced in our lives. In our first reading, we hear about disciples who were preaching the Good News and defending the faith. The work they were doing was “with the consolation of the Holy Spirit.” It was not their work alone, but the work of God. We must ask ourselves, ‘how is God bearing fruit in my life?’ and ‘have I invited the Holy Spirit to work in me?’ The more we try to produce good effects in our lives, the more we will become disappointed if all we are relying on is our own efforts. It is only by inviting the Holy Spirit into our everyday moments that we will see goodness poured out. Jesus clearly tells us how to do this in our Gospel. He says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.” We can remain in Christ by staying faithful to His commandments and frequently receiving the sacraments. And our day-to-day moments should be a reflection of those commitments. That could mean opening our day with a prayer of thanksgiving, smiling at those we see on the street, asking God for help as we begin our workday, praising God in moments of trial, taking time to listen to our spouse after a long day. To remain in Christ means, in all that we do, we do it with the Lord. When we live a life like that — as a branch never separated from its vine — God will produce bountiful fruit in our lives. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2024 Pastoral Pondering I have had a few folks interested in what exactly occurs when a diocese received a new bishop, so I thought I would outline the process a bit for a contribution to your knowledge of Catholic trivia. Before a new bishop can be appointed, the diocese in question has to be vacant. A vacancy occurs through death, retirement, resignation or removal. In our case, Bishop Jugis submitted his resignation based on his deteriorating health, one of the reasons that a bishop can ask to be relieved of the administration of a diocese. Once the Holy Father accepts the resignation, the See becomes vacant. During the interim or sede vacante (vacant seat) period, the diocese needs to have someone to keep things going. This is done by either a priest, who is appointed administrator or by a bishop, who is known as an apostolic administrator. In our case Bishop Jugis continues as the apostolic administrator. Since his successor has already been named, Bishop Jugis can help prepare for the new bishop’s transition. As soon as a see is vacated, several offices and one advisory body cease to function. Any vicars general or episcopal vicars lose their office and the Presbyteral Council ceases until reconstituted by the new bishop. Both the Judicial Vicar and the Chief Financial Office of the diocese continue in office to insure the ongoing functions of their offices. Bishop Jugis, as Apostolic Administrator, has asked those priests who were serving as his vicar general and episcopal vicars to continue performing their functions in the interim. When the new Bishop is installed, he can reappoint the vicars or appoint others to take their places. If a priest is appointed as the new bishop, he must be ordained a bishop before he can assume the office. Once ordained, a ceremony occurs, usually a Mass, during which the newly ordained bishop takes possession of the diocese and assumed the full pastoral care of the Diocese. Hence, Bishop-elect Martin will be ordained on May 29 th and then will take possession of the Diocese on the following day.  A lot of work can be done to prepare for the new bishop’s arrival prior to his coming. Nonetheless, the first few weeks of his administration will be taken up with settling into his new position and getting his bearings. This is very similar to a new pastor coming to a parish; albeit, on a larger scale. During these early days of the new administration, the new bishop decides on vicar appointments and reconstitutes the Presbyteral Council and makes any other decisions that he deems appropriate for pastoral care. Often new bishops spend a good bit of time visiting the new parishes of the new Diocese to get to know his priests and meet his people. In Bishop-elect Martin’s case, he will be ordaining transitional deacons on the Saturday following his own ordination and then ordaining priests two weeks later, so he will indeed “hit the ground running”. Keep him in your prayers.
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