From the Pastor - Baptism of the Lord

January 8, 2021

Our Christmas season concludes with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Jesus was not baptized because he needed to repent — rather, He was revealing who He is and what He came to do.


It is from His mission that we can receive the sacrament of baptism — when we become adopted sons and daughters of God. From that moment, we belong to Christ — we become His stewards. Our lives should be a reflection of this relationship. The way we live should reveal Whose we are.


In our First Reading, the prophet Isaiah shares a message of hope, “Why spend your money for what is not bread, your wages for what fails to satisfy?” We should ask ourselves, "Who is the king of our hearts?" As Christian stewards, it should be God. We often fill our lives with things that satisfy us only for a moment. If we truly do belong to Christ, then we will make Him our top priority. What we fill our lives with should reveal that He is King.


In our Gospel, Mark reveals the intimate relationship between God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus and God the Father proclaimed, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” We, too, have access to an intimate relationship with God. But like all good relationships, it flourishes with effort. How we spend our time and share our gifts says a great deal about Whose we are. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2020.


Pastoral Pondering

Covid Vaccines — I have continued to receive questions about the morality of receiving the COVID vaccine due to it’s connection with human fetal cells obtained following abortion. Both the USCCB and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith have issued guidance in this regard. Both indicate that while no one is obliged to receive the vaccine (or coerced to do so), due to severity of the pandemic and the remoteness of the moral cooperation, it is morally licit to receive the COVID vaccine. Each individual must still evaluate his or her own personal objections and concerns and decide what to do accordingly.


Adoration — I have said before that I believe our parish commitment to perpetual Eucharistic Adoration has been the fundamental “power” that allows us to accomplish all that we have been able to in recent years, but certainly, during a very difficult 2020. Father Richard Heilman, the author of the Grace Force Podcast and other efforts says the following: “I am convinced that a movement of restoring Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is the spiritual therapeutic for cleansing our country of demonic influence and opening the floodgates of grace that will heal our land… bringing our country back to the spiritual health of being One Nation Under God once again.”


No reasonable person of faith can deny that over the past several years, we have seen an increase of activity that can only be described as evil and even diabolical. It especially manifested itself during 2020 in a negation of the importance of the spiritual and eternal for a focus on the physical and temporal. This of course is completely contrary to Christian faith and history. As followers of Jesus Christ, we have an obligation to have as our first and most important reason for living in the vale of tears to love and serve the Lord here so that we can be with Him forever in heaven.


With this in mind, I want to encourage you all to make Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament an intentional decision for all of our families. While we have a core of very dedicated adorers who cover the hours of Adoration during the week, far too many are left with only a single adorer signed up and committed. We are to be the leaven in society, and we cannot fulfill this mission if we do not first recommit ourselves to fitting worship and prayer of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This certainly takes place when we assist at Holy Mass, but Adoration is the sacramental that leads us to ponder what we are offered at the Holy Sacrifice. I hear countless people lament and complain about the state of the world. Yet, rather than first having recourse to the source of True Power, we often turn to worldly solutions such as political or judicial structures and institutions in hopes that they can solve our problems. This is simply fanciful thinking. Because of our fallen human nature, the merely human and temporal will never cure what ails our nation and our world. Our first recourse must be to the Almighty.


I encourage and even beseech you then to be intentional Adorers of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Commit yourself and your families to set times of adoration so that the outflowing of grace that comes from this pious and devout practice might pour forth not only here in the parish but far beyond. In Luke 6:38, the Lord says the following: “Give, and it shall be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over shall be poured into your lap.” God wants to pour out His graces upon us if we will just cooperate with Him and accept all that He desires for us. Please sign up for Adoration. https://www.stmarknc.org/adoration.


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).