From the Pastor - Fourth Sunday of Advent

December 20, 2024

Our Blessed Mother takes center stage on this fourth Sunday of Advent, and fittingly so, as we draw near to the celebration of her Son’s birth. After our Lord Himself, Mary is our model and guide to a stewardship way of life.


Today’s Gospel passage from Luke describes Mary’s actions immediately after her “yes” to the angel Gabriel’s message. “Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah… and greeted Elizabeth.” Mary immediately begins to think of others before herself, setting out quickly to be with her cousin, modeling two of the pillars of stewardship – Hospitality and Service.



What warmth and humility the Mother of our Savior shows, traveling to Elizabeth to spend time with her, rejoicing with Elizabeth over her own incredible pregnancy, and assisting her in a time of need. And what joy this hospitality and service brings to Elizabeth.

Our Blessed Mother’s example of a stewardship way of life is one that we, her children, can follow in our own lives today. With all the gifts God gives us — our time, our talents, our material possessions — we, too, can offer ourselves to God by using these gifts to serve and glorify Him. In so doing, we will effectively spread the Good News of the Gospel to the world around us today.

We will be stewards after our Mother’s own heart. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2024

 

Pastoral Pondering

As we celebrate the Lord’s nativity this week, my prayer for each of you is that it will be a time of joy and peace. Christmas for me has always been about celebrating the Lord’s birth with family. For us priests, while we each have our natural families, the parish becomes family to us, and it gives us great joy to celebrate this great solemnity with each of you. Be assured of my prayers for you as your pastor and know that the other priests are praying for you as well. We are blessed to be a part of the St. Mark family!

From the Pastor

From the Pastor - Fifth Sunday of Easter

By John Putnam • May 16, 2025
Today’s readings on this fifth Sunday of Easter contain inspiring but challenging messages for us Christian stewards. The Gospel from John includes this well-known verse: “My children…I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” What a succinct description of a stewardship way of life. It sounds so simples. But simple does not necessarily mean easy. How exactly is Jesus Calling us to love? As He, Himself loved. Jesus loved (and loves) by serving us and by making a sacrifice of His very life for us. That is a tall order. Living a life of service and self-sacrifice is not easy because it requires us to continuously fight against our selfish inclinations. But the more we empty ourselves of “self” by serving others, the more room we make in our hearts for God to pour His grace into us. Amazingly, the more we give our lives away to others, the more He fills us up with Himself who is love itself. And amid the inevitable challenging moments this way of life entails we can be assured that the Lord who loves us so much that He died for us and established the Eucharist to be our strength and nourishment, is right here with us every step of the way. As we face the hardships that come with living as Christian stewards, we can continue to rejoice in the wonder of the Resurrection this Easter season, finding great joy in following in our Lord’s footsteps and in loving as He loves. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2025 Pastoral Pondering  As you have probably noticed, the original St. Mark building, the old rectory on Ranson Road, has been torn down. Preparatory work has begun on the lot for the new rectory. In the next couple of weeks, we will be meeting with the Diocese and doing some value engineering. Once that is accomplished it will be decided when we can move forward with groundbreaking and construction. On the Campaign front, we thank all of those who have extended their pledges or moved a one-time gift into a multi-year pledge. In order to reach the goal of $9.7 million, we still need to raise a little over $400K before June 30 th . Percentagewise, there are still a large number of parish families who have not participated in the Campaign. We need your help to reach the goal. Whether we accomplish that goal will determine what we can do next. As June approaches, we are preparing for the ordination of some of our seminarians to the Diaconate and then the ordination of our transitional deacons to the Priesthood. Please keep all of them in your prayers. One of those to be ordained deacon, Seminarian Michael Lugo, has been assigned to St. Mark for the summer. We look forward to working with him and know you all will make him welcome.

From the Pastor - Fourth Sunday of Easter

By John Putnam • May 9, 2025
Throughout the Easter season, our readings have given us glimpses into the life of the newborn Church and the bold witness of the early disciples in spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ to all who would listen. The disciples were the first to live a stewardship way of life, and their example is as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago. In the First Reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, we catch up with Paul and Barnabas in Antioch. While they certainly have some success in reaching many people there with the message of salvation, others are downright infuriated by their words and send them packing. Yet, we read that “the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.” Overall, it seems as if Paul and Barnabas had failed in Antioch. But seeing failure has not robbed them of their joy. What’s more, they are filled to the brim with the abundant gifts of the Holy Spirit. How is this possible? It is only possible because Paul and Barnabas saw themselves as nothing more and nothing less than stewards of Christ and His Good News. This realization brought them freedom — to offer themselves and their lives to others for the sake of the Gospel. The “results” of their efforts were up to God. This Spirit-filled, joy-filled life is available to us all today. It can be achieved when we recognize, as did Paul and Barnabas, that all we have and all we are is a gift from God, meant to be shared with others for His glory. Of course, living as God’s stewards does not guarantee a life of ease or a life free of sacrifice. Sometimes the steward’s life involves challenges, requiring all the strength and love one has to give. In the end, there is simply no more satisfying way to live. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2025 Pastoral Pondering Because of the time limits placed on us by the bulletin company, this is being written before the conclave begins but will be published after the fact, so we may actually have a new pope (and I hope we do) by the time you are reading this. It is a good reminder that there are still limits on our modern efficiency. Over the past couple of weeks, in addition to praying for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis, we have also had the opportunity to celebrate confirmation with Bishop Martin with a little more than half of our confirmands (99), the remaining 80 or so will be confirmed this week. We have also celebrated two of our First Holy Communions with the remaining two being celebrated next Saturday. May is always busy!  It is always a great blessing to celebrate these sacraments with our young people. Celebrating with the second graders is a special joy because they are so open to God’s presence in their lives. We are also praying for those candidates (folks baptized in another Christian church) who will be received into the full Communion of the Catholic Church on the Vigil of Pentecost. Please keep all of these folks in prayer as they grow in the sacramental life and in their walk with Christ.
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