From the Pastor - 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

September 3, 2021

Today's readings offer us a message of hope — God is with us and wants to heal us. May this message come ablaze in our hearts so that we might live with unwavering faith.


The Gospel presents us with the story of the profound physical healing of a deaf man with a speech impediment. People brought him to Jesus and begged for his healing. Jesus took the man off by himself, touched his ears and his tongue, then proclaimed, “Be opened!” Immediately he was healed.


This story in our Gospel overwhelms us with comfort and peace because we have a compassionate God who sees our physical needs. Yet if we reflect further on this reading, we see that God uses this moment of physical healing as an opportunity to restore something much deeper—our souls.


Often, we are blind and deaf to God in our lives. We miss countless opportunities to see God working in our day-to-day moments—through our loved ones, our community, or even a stranger. We miss the quiet voice of Jesus in our hearts telling us to choose Him instead of sin, respond in love instead of anger, or care for someone else in a moment instead of ourselves.


These are how we need to be spiritually healed. And the scriptures remind us that God is with us and wants to heal us. 


This week let us seek God to heal our souls and transform our hearts. Let us pray that our eyes and our ears might “be open" to His workings, words, and promptings in our lives. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2021


Pastoral Pondering

Next weekend we will have our annual Septemberfest. The majority of the events will be outside on the lawn and piazza. We are looking forward to having the opportunity to come together in a relaxed and enjoyable setting. As always, a special thanks to the staff and many volunteers who make this event possible.



A few weeks ago, Theresa Benson, the Director of Evangelization, let us know that she had accepted a new position and would be leaving St. Mark. We appreciate her efforts during her tenure here at the parish. This move afforded us an opportunity to step back and consider how to best structure our evangelization efforts moving forward. I have always believed these situations to be opportunities provided to us by God, even when they at first appear difficult.


In considering the needs of the parish, it has become clear that in order to truly be a parish that seeks to evangelize and witness to Christ, our efforts need to be more coordinated. This is especially true when we consider those areas of parish life that touch directly on the prophetic office of Christ. These would include evangelization and all of those ministries that we often identify as Faith Formation. This, of course, does not mean that other ministries and apostolates do not participate in evangelization, but it is usually not their primary focus.


With this being said, we have decided to place our faith formation and youth ministry efforts under the Evangelization umbrella and are excited to bring on Paul Laskowski as the Director of Evangelization and Catechesis. Paul and his family are moving here from Pennsylvania. There will be a welcome page with more information in a forthcoming bulletin. Paul will have the responsibility of directing and coordinating all of our efforts in these areas in cooperation with our existing Faith Formation and Youth Ministry staff. Sister Zeny Mofada, OP will continue as well but as Pastoral Associate for Catechesis. This is more reflective of the charism of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena. Paul and the Faith Formation staff will also be assisted by Carrie Merner on a part-time basis to help ensure that all of our efforts are coordinated and mission effective.


Please keep these efforts in your prayers.

 


From the Pastor

From the Pastor - 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

By John Putnam • October 3, 2025
Our readings today show us that living a stewardship way of life, that is, a life focused on serving God and His Kingdom, is not easy. They also show us that our lives belong to God, not to us, and that God will indeed bring about the fulfillment of His kingdom., We just need to have faith that He can do it and commit to our small part in His grand design. This is both our privilege and responsibility as Christian stewards. Jesus makes this privilege and responsibility clear in today’s Gospel passage from Luke. When the apostles as the Lord to increase their faith, He tells them that even a mustard-seed sized faith is all that is needed to move mountains (because it is God who does the heavy lifting). We need to only take the tiniest step forward, and He will do the rest. But living our lives in His service is also very much our responsibility, as Jesus explains through the parable of the unprofitable servant later in the passage. Our Lord describes a scene in which a servant has just come from tending to the master’s affairs and asks whether it would be reasonable for the master to begin waiting on the servant. Of course, it would not be reasonable! The servant would be expected to continue to serve his master until he has completed the work the master has given him that day. Jesus says that we should have the same attitude before God. The time, talents, and treasure entrusted to us are all God’s. Our very lives belong to Him. Whatever we do on God’s behalf with our lives and our gifts is simply our God-given responsibility. The stewardship way of life makes the privilege and responsibility of serving Christ and His kingdom a reality. ©Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2025 Pastoral Pondering  As we move into autumnal colors, with shorter days and cooling weather, the late weeks of the liturgical year always provide us with an opportunity to reflect on faith and life. It is also that time of the calendar year when we start thinking about those who are less fortunate among us. In the coming weeks, we have a number of efforts to assist the least of our brethren with life’s basic needs including the coat drive, thanksgiving food drive and the Christmas giving effort (formerly known as the Angel Tree ©). There are no shortage of demands placed on all of us these days, but the spiritual and corporal works of mercy remain the bedrock of our Catholic lives. Thank you in advance for responding with a generous heart.

From the Pastor - 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

By John Putnam • September 26, 2025
We have all been given great power by God in the form of Time, Talents, and Treasure. Today’s readings remind us that this power is meant to be used for great good. And that failure to do so has eternal consequences. We see the urgency for us to put our powers to good use in today’s Gospel passage from Luke. Our Lord tells the rather chilling parable of the rich man who ignored poor Lazarus during their lifetimes. At the moment of the rich man’s death, he goes down to the netherworld, while Lazarus is taken to the eternal joy and comfort in the bosom of Abraham. The rich man keenly regrets his indifference towards the needs of Lazarus, but it is too late for regret. His choices have played out, and now the rich man will face the consequences of his failure to use the gifts God gave him. Pursuit of God’s kingdom and care for the poor are not trifling matters. Our Lord makes this clear to us over and over in the Scriptures and the constant teachings of our 2,000-year-old Church. We are free to ignore these teachings and live instead for ourselves. But there will be tragic results for us in the end. And, because we are made for eternity, living selfishly on this earth doesn’t really bring us true happiness anyway. So how can we use our great powers for great good? By embracing stewardship way of life. By putting God first in all areas of our lives — in the way we spend our time, the ways we share our talents, the ways we give of our financial resources. Stewardship living calls us out of our comfort zone and into commitment to the Lord and the things that matter to Him. ©Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2025 Pastoral Pondering Even though this year is not a presidential or mid-term election, local elections are quite important, and we often don’t take them as seriously as we should. This year we have two parishioners running for office, Dan Boone is running for town council, and Bill Fountain is running for school board. To some these positions may seem insignificant, but it is at the local level that we, as Catholics, can have the greatest impact. I thought it might be helpful then to give a reminder of the duties of Catholics in political life. The Church teaches that lay Catholics bear primary responsibility for temporal affairs, including politics, as an extension of baptismal vocation (CCC 1913). Key duties include:  Forming Conscience : Study Church teachings to discern moral priorities; avoid reducing faith to single issues but prioritize intrinsic evils like abortion. Active Involvemen t: Vote informatively, run for office, join parties or advocacy groups, and dialogue with officials to apply Gospel values. Pope Francis stated, "A good Catholic meddles in politics," offering the best of oneself to help leaders govern justly. Non-Partisan Advocacy : The Church engages issues (e.g., life, family, peace) but avoids partisanship to focus on principles. Parishes can host voter education but not endorse candidates. For Public Officials : Catholic politicians must align actions with Church moral teachings; supporting grave evils like abortion risks scandal and cooperation in evil. Separation of church and state protects, rather than hinders, faith-based action in public life. Challenges and Encouragement In polarized environments, Catholics may feel disenfranchised, but the Church calls for renewed engagement to transform society incrementally toward justice. Resources like the USCCB's Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship (updated periodically) guide voters on applying Catholic Social Teaching. Ultimately, political action flows from love of neighbor, proving faith through works (James 2:14–17).