From the Pastor – Feast of the Holy Family

December 29, 2019

From the Pastor – Feast of the Holy Family

Today, as we continue celebrating the Christmas season, we focus our attention on the Holy Family. This is a great time to thank God for the gift of family life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to the family as the “domestic church,” so today’s feast is a fitting time to consider the importance of the virtue of the stewardship pillar of hospitality within the context of our own domestic churches.

Why is hospitality so important? Well, we can hardly expect our family members to pray together, study their faith, and serve others if we have a home where we are disconnected from each other, or the atmosphere is stressful and tense. Of course, there will be moments like this. But we must be intentional in creating homes where everyone feels accepted and important. We want our homes to be the place to get recharged to go out and bring love to everyone we encounter outside our home.

This is not easy, but we can turn to the Holy Family for help. Lest we think that the Holy Family is somehow unable to sympathize with our struggles, we see in our Gospel passage from Matthew that this Family was certainly not free from trials and stress; quite the contrary. The very life of the newborn Jesus was threatened by Herod’s extreme jealousy such that the family had to flee suddenly into a foreign land for protection until Herod’s death. Yet Mary and Joseph remained united and ever obedient to the Holy Spirit for direction. Who better to turn to for help and inspiration for our own families? © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2019

Pastoral Pondering

As we celebrate the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph this weekend and continue our celebration of Christmas, we have a wonderful opportunity to ponder the importance of the family to culture, society and the Church. It’s been pointed out in more than one study over the years that there are many factors in society that are fighting against the traditional family. Most recently a pew research poll found that among 130 countries, the United States has the highest rate of children living in single-parent households. Almost a quarter of U.S. children under the age of 18 live with one parent and no other adults (23%), more than three times the share of children around the world who do so (7%). There also seems to be an increase in children growing up without extended family living close by.

I think this is significant because the family is the basic building block of society and the Church. In fact, in Church teaching we refer to the family as the domestic church. The destruction of family life; whether due to divorce or childbirth out of wedlock, is harmful to all of us. And there are any number of studies that show how this sad trend is harmful to children.

I mention all of this because one of our priorities at St. Mark is to strengthen the Domestic Church. It is a filter through which we want to evaluate everything we do here and ensure that we offer opportunities to strengthen all families but, especially those families that are broken and in crisis. Whether it is offering support for those divorced or separated or providing retreats for couples, we need to be sure that our efforts here are working to strengthen families and help them thrive.

As we celebrate the Holy Family, let us ask for their intercession that all families, especially our parish families and the families that form it, will be strengthened to live fully the light of the Gospel.

From the Pastor

From the Pastor - Seventh Sunday of Easter

By John Putnam • May 30, 2025
On this Feast of the Ascension, we celebrate Christ’s triumphant return to the Father after perfectly accomplishing His mission on earth. But we also can also view this Feast as a celebration of the “launch day” of our commissioning as Christ’s disciples. Today’s Gospel draws our attention to the clear instructions that Jesus gave His disciples (and to us) just before ascending to the Father: “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things." Embracing a stewardship way of life, with its emphasis on the use of time, talent and treasure, helps us to live in such a way that our very lives speak as a witness of the Good News of the Gospel. While we take time to reflect and renew our commitments in these three areas annually as a parish family, it is of great benefit to take some time individually throughout the year to take stock of the commitments we have made — looking at both our strengths and our need for continued growth in each area. On this Feast of our "launch day," take some time to celebrate your victories as Christ’s disciples and renew your commitment to remain faithful to Him and the unique mission He has entrusted to you! © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2025 Pastoral Pondering In Matthew 28:20 Jesus reminds the apostles, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” I have always taken great strength and consolation from these words. They are foreshadowed in the Old Testament in Isaiah 41:20: “Fear not for I am with you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous hand.” These are words from a God who loves us and who desires our good. A God who desires to make His dwelling with us and to inspire us to live lives worthy of Himself. They are words that help us prepare ourselves to celebrate Pentecost and to be open to the work of the Holy Spirit in us and among us.  Next Saturday evening, we will celebrate the Rite of Confirmation and Reception into Full Communion with our candidates who have been participating in the OCIA process. Please keep them in your prayers and help them find their place within our parish community. In the morning next Saturday, we are privileged to host the diaconate ordination for seven of our diocesan seminarians. As noted previously, one of them, Michael Lugo, will be with us for the summer. This parish is phenomenal in helping these young men find their “ministerial feet” so to speak. And we always welcome the opportunity to be blessed with their enthusiasm and energy. Finally, the Diocese has approved our moving into the construction phase for the rectory project. The prep work has already been done, and the actual building phase should begin in the next few weeks. This weekend, we are making a final push to reach our campaign goal. If you have not done so, we need your help and participation. The goal is doable and, together we can accomplish much. Assuming our fundraising keeps apace our hope is to begin the main-campus project next summer. Between now and then we will be doing some evaluations and, where necessary, value engineering to help us stay on track with the plan.

From the Pastor - Sixth Sunday of Easter

By John Putnam • May 30, 2025
The concept of hospitality is fundamental to a stewardship way of life. When we envision hospitality, we naturally think of offering a sincere and warm welcome — to those new to our parish, for instance. We picture inviting them in and making them feel at home and at ease in our presence, communicating to them that they are highly valued. Today’s Gospel reading from John invites us to think of hospitality in a slightly different way. In it, we hear Jesus speaking this to his disciples: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” Jesus is asking that we permit the Blessed Trinity to come and dwell within us. This is a stunning request. It tells us that our first and most privileged form of hospitality should be directed towards God Himself. How does one show hospitality to God? How do we make God “at home and at ease” within us? How can we communicate to God that He is “highly valued” by us? Jesus tells us how: we are to keep His word, to follow HIs teachings. To keep His word, we must know His word. This takes discipline and effort on our part. We must make the study of Scripture and Church teaching a priority in our daily lives. If we want our parish to be a place of genuine Christian hospitality, we must be sure that our own hearts are hospitable dwelling places for the Blessed Trinity. Then our smiles and words, our greetings and ministries will radiate with the warmth of God’s love. And our parish family will become at least a little bit like Heaven on earth. This is the simplicity and glory of a stewardship way of life . © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2025
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