From the Pastor - 1st Sunday in Lent

March 5, 2022

And so, it begins — the holy and, for some, daunting, season of Lent.  This is the season in our liturgical year when the Church encourages us to increase our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to help us enter more deeply into the mystery of our Lord’s Passion and Death and to celebrate more fully His Resurrection.


Jesus, by His own example in today’s Gospel, demonstrates the necessity of setting aside a period devoted especially to prayer and fasting as a means of strengthening our spiritual muscles. Just before the launch of His public ministry, He is “led by the Holy Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil.” In imitation of Jesus, we should ask the Holy Spirit to lead us into the desert, too — the desert of our interior lives where our thoughts and desires reside.


While our Lord was strong enough to withstand the temptations of the devil on His own, we most certainly are not! We must turn to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to show us where we need to grow, and then rely on the Holy Spirit for strength and guidance throughout these 40 days of growth. Perhaps we will be led to take on a spiritual reading program, or a daily time of meditation on the Scriptures.  Maybe we’ll be inspired to fast from our favorite food or social media fix and find a project that serves the poor in this community.


If these spiritual exercises hurt a little, that means we are doing them right! At the end of this season, we will be prepared to enter into the grace-filled days of the Triduum and we will, through the power of the Holy Spirit, be resurrected as a new creation with our Lord come Easter. Let us begin! © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2022


Pastoral Pondering

As I noted last week, the US Bishops have called for a time of Eucharistic renewal. As a help to all of us as we seek to deepen our appreciation for the Eucharist, I will address each of the pillars that are seen as central to aiding this renewal to take place. As noted last week the three include: kerygma, liturgy and diakonia or service. In order to understand the Eucharistic Kerygma, it is helpful to consider the foundational Kerygma of our faith.


In 1 Corinthians 1:23 St. Paul says: “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” This is the fundamental content of the Kerygma. In an address for World Marriage Day in 2012, Pope Benedict described it as follows: “the Kerygma of Christ who died and rose for the world’s salvation, the Kerygma of God’s absolute and total love for every man and woman, which culminates in his sending the eternal and only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus, who did not scorn to take on the poverty of our human nature, loving it and redeeming it from sin and death through the offering of Himself on the Cross.”


In Evangelium Gaudium Pope Francis notes that the Kerygma must be “the center of all evangelizing activity and all efforts of Church renewal.” In other words, we cannot recapture a true sense of the Eucharistic mystery unless and until we understand how that mystery is connected to and a manifestation of the Cross of Christ. Ultimately embracing the Kerygma is about embracing a life of repentance and conversion; both of which depend on the grace of God which He gives so generously. Hence, the proclamation of the Kerygma, the expression of God’s saving love, has to precede a catechesis on religious and moral life. It is imperative that we understand that “God loved us first” as St. John reminds us in his first letter (4:19).



The Lenten season affords us ample opportunity to meditate upon the Christian mystery. The stations of the Cross, for example, can help us move closer to and embrace Christ crucified. The fruitful celebration of the sacrament of penance can assist us to understand more deeply the reality of God’s love that was manifested so clearly on Calvary. And in developing this deeper understanding of the Kerygma, we more effectively dispose ourselves to a deeper understanding of what the Mass truly is and what Eucharistic communion demands.

Each one of us is called to evangelize the world in which we live. It is a world desperately in need of the proclamation of the God who loves. We cannot fulfill this common mission unless we ourselves come to understand the basis of our faith. For, in truth, we cannot give what we do not have.”


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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