From the Pastor – 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

October 20, 2019

From the Pastor – 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The four pillars of parish stewardship are hospitality, prayer, formation and service. Today’s readings show us the immense value of prayer and the privileged place it must have in our individual lives and our in parish community.

Our Lord Himself calls us to prayer — and persistence in prayer — in the Gospel passage from Luke. Jesus tells the parable of the nagging widow who finally wears down the judge with her unrelenting persistence in her pursuit of a just ruling from him on her behalf. Jesus goes to great lengths to describe this judge, saying he “neither feared God nor respected any human.” Yet even this corrupt judge responds with a just judgment because of the widow’s persistence.

Jesus uses this outlandish example to draw a vivid contrast between a reluctant, dishonest judge and our loving, all-merciful Father. If even a bad judge will give a good result in response to a persistent request, how much more (infinitely more) eagerly and perfectly will our good Father respond to our persistent prayers to Him.

If he delays in responding, if he provides a different response from the one we were expecting, we can remain confident and trusting in His goodness, knowing that His response, whenever it comes and in whatever form, will be the very best one for us.

Our job then, as Christian stewards, is simply to remain faithful to our relationship with God through prayer. We must lean on each other in our communities — family and parish — as we support each other in prayer. A strong pillar of prayer will make all our other stewardship efforts fruitful. Catholic Stewardship Consultants ©

Pastoral Pondering
As I write this, I am on retreat with the other priests of the Diocese in Maggie Valley, NC which is located in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. The retreat master, Fr. Augustine Esposito, OSA, has been speaking to us on the importance of prayer in the life of the priest. This, of course, should go without saying, but a life of prayer is essential to everyone who bears the name of Christ.

I believe prayer and knowing how to pray at times is a great struggle for many of us. I thought, therefore, that I would offer some suggestions that might be helpful as we strive to grow in our relationship with Christ. First, it is helpful to answer the question, “What is prayer?” St. Augustine responded that “the pious soul prays to conform his will to the will of God.” Hence, the goal of praying is configuring ourselves to Christ and making ourselves a total and complete gift to the Father.

Prayer is the way in which we can make God the very center of our lives. As we pray, we displace the things that are not Godly. This occurs because God has to be the center of our prayer. True prayer, of course, requires taking time for God. This can be a real challenge in the hectic world in which we live, but without prayer, the chaos of life can become unbearable. When we make room for God, He makes time for the other needs of our lives. “But I don’t know how to pray” someone might say. Well, the Lord has certainly given us a model. When the apostles asked the Lord to teach them how to pray, He shared with them the Our Father. Simply saying this prayer slowly and deliberately is a great place to start when we don’t know what we should do when approaching prayer. In the end our prayer time should afford us an opportunity to get lost in the presence of Christ.

The following points should be remembered:

  1. Prayer is not a grand oratio in a grand cathedral but a simple folk song in the chapel of our heart.
  2. Talk to the Lord as you would to a best friend.
  3. Prayer is the language of the soul, as soon-to-be Saint John Henry Newman would say, it is Cor ad cor loquitor, heart speaking to heart.
  4. Distractions are not an obstacle to God’s grace. They come and they go. Do not let them disquiet you. Be at peace and be silent before the Lord.

Finally, I would like to make another appeal to support our Perpetual Adoration here at the parish. The number of adoration hours that have only one hour is growing. The Church expects us, in order to have perpetual adoration, to have at least two adorers for each hour. Many people stop by the chapel regularly, but they are hesitant to commit to a weekly hour. In order to maintain perpetual adoration in the parish, we must fill these spaces. Please help. You can find a list of the immediate needs on the parish website.

From the Pastor

From the Pastor - First Sunday of Advent

By John Putnam • December 2, 2025
Today we begin the beautiful season of Advent — a season of preparation. For what are we preparing? The celebration of the birth of our Savior, and the anticipation of His second coming. These are weighty tasks with eternal consequences. So, let us as Christian stewards make the words of the Prophet Isaiah our motto for the season: “Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways and we may walk in his paths.” In the weeks leading up to Christmas, it seems everywhere we turn we are pushed to spend more, do more, entertain more, and generally rush around at a frantic pace — all to create a “perfect” Christmas day. In contrast to this worldly pressure, the Church’s guidance to use these weeks as a time to focus on our spiritual lives can indeed seem like a mountain climb. But the intentional and wise use of the gift of time is exactly what the Christian steward is called to do, and with even greater intensity during Advent. How can we use our time to prepare for a holy celebration of Jesus’ birth on Dec. 25 and for his second coming at a date we do not know? We can push back against the world’s pressure to have the “perfect Christmas.” Scale back on the material kind of gift-giving, the complicated menus, the unessential trappings of the season so that we have more time for the spiritual preparations: Confession, weekday Mass, adoration, family prayer time, lighting the Advent wreath, acts of kindness. It may feel like a mountain climb, but in the end, we will be prepared to celebrate a truly meaningful Christmas, we will have become more like our Savior, and we will be ready for Him to come again. Let’s go climb the Lord’s mountain! © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2025 From the Pastor Advent brings a time of new beginning. A new liturgical year is upon us, but it is also a time to prepare our hearts for something – for the coming of the Lord. The first weeks of Advent focus on the Lord’s coming at the end of time, and the latter weeks of Advent focus on preparing to celebrate His coming at the Nativity. Both, however, are interconnected. The first coming of the Lord facilitates His coming into our hearts, which, in the end, facilitates His second coming to judge the living and the dead. The “in between” of these two comings is where time and eternity come together. We are called to live each day in expectation of His coming. We are called to hope for His coming and to expect it even when it seems long delayed. It is in this expectation that we must learn to live our lives. Daily life is messy and unpredictable. We must deal with disappointments, sickness and loss. Yet, we do so as people of hope who know that in these crosses, there lies ultimate joy because of the love of the Father who sent his Son to love us to the end. As we begin a new journey in a new liturgical year, let us do so with joyful expectation. Knowing that the end of the journey, if we are faithful, is paradise.

From the Pastor - Solemnity of Christ the King

By John Putnam • November 21, 2025
On this Feast of Christ the King, our readings show us that we serve the greatest of Kings, who is at the same time the humblest of Kings. Christ is the perfect model of servant leadership. And what an indescribable privilege that He has called us to be servant leaders — stewards in the work of advancing His Kingdom. In our second reading, from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians, Paul describes the great power and dignity that characterize Christ the King. “All things were created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together.” It makes you want to stand up and cheer. That’s our King! Yet, what a contrasting description of the same King we find in our Gospel passage, from Luke. Now we see our King nailed to the Cross. Everyone from rulers to soldiers, to the criminals on either side of Christ is mocking, sneering, and reviling him. They tauntingly urge him to prove His kingship by coming down from the Cross to end his suffering with a great show of power. “if you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.” But He does not. Amazingly, it is in this moment of seeming-weakness and humiliation, when all appears hopeless and lost, that the full breadth of his greatness as king is displayed. Though all things were created through and for Him — Christ chooses to live entirely for others, for us! What does this mean for us as his followers and stewards of His kingdom? It is precisely that our lives are not about us. They are about Christ and others. And we will advance his kingdom to the extent that we embrace this mindset: my life is not about me; it is about serving the King of kings. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2025