Pastor’s Corner — December 18th, 2022
Gospel Preaching Series: Recap of #3 (Rescued) and a Look to #4 (Response)
Last week I preached on how Jesus rescues us from sin and death by the power of the cross. On the cross Jesus sacrifices himself out of love for us by taking our guilt upon himself and dying so that we who were enslaved to sin and death might live. His gift of love on the cross is something we can’t earn and is the basis of our response of loving him. He’s disarmed the enemy and transferred us into God’s kingdom, destroyed the power of sin and death, makes a new creation, and shares with us his relationship with the Father. If you missed last weeks’ homily, please watch it so you can be caught up for our final homily in the series.
This week Fr. Miguel is going to unpack the need for our Response to what God has done for us. The only sensible response to the revelation of God’s love for us is a total surrender of our lives to God in faith working in love. Faith and repentance and the gift of the Holy Spirit: these are central to a salvific response to the gospel. God will never force us to love him in eternity. In order to reap the benefits of the cross, we need to respond to the invitation to live with God forever. After all, heaven is for those who respond to the love of the King of heaven.
Created, Captured, Rescued, Response. That’s the gospel story, by which and in which we understand and live the entire Christian faith.
Communication Expectations at St. Pat’s
At the end of Mass last weekend, I reminded the parish how we communicate what is going on in the parish. Here is a summary of what I said for future reference
Bulletin: The bulletin is the main way we communicate what’s going on in the parish. While the bulletin can be long (and we are working to pare it down), I am asking that everyone at least to try to read my column and what parish staff puts in the bulletin.
Parish Email: Email communication allows for more timely communication to parishioners and enables us to share digital content that cannot be accessed in our bulletin. Currently, there are two kind of emails we send out to the parish
o 1) Mid-Week Email Update: These emails highlight some events that are already in the bulletin, some timely updates that aren’t in the bulletin, and digital content that cannot be accessed in the bulletin. Also included in the Mid-Week are links to my (upcoming) weekend
column, the (upcoming) bulletin in digital form and more. You might note already that my bulletin columns include internet links, which means I am hoping that you’re accessing my column via email.
o 2) Emails from me or key staff: Once in a while we will send out emails on important topics related to life in the parish or on a key pastoral issue. The content of these emails usually doesn’t fit in the bulletin or is inappropriate for the bulletin given its digital content. Most of the time, the content of these emails will find itself in the bulletin, but not always. If you have access to the internet please sign up for this. If you are signed up and are not getting these, please check your Spam filter.Social Media: The parish utilizes social media to communicate to the parish in various ways.
o YouTube: We have a channel in which we post homilies, selected talks, and other videos such as Rectory Rambles
o Facebook and Instagram: Here we post some pictures of events, reminders about events and even some of our other digital content such as YouTube videos or Pastoral Notes I send out in email.Website: Our website communicates our identity, values and mission to the outside world and is used to
communicate to the parish various events and information, such as our bulletin and the Pastor’s Corner which includes my column and other communications.Announcements at Mass: Since we’re communicating virtually all parish events in our parish through our bulletin and parish email, announcements at Mass will be kept to a minimum. These announcements when they happen are usually for timely parish items that were unable to be put in the bulletin and those items I believe need special attention due to their relevance to the mission.
My Commentary on New Diocesan Structure
If you missed Deb Amato’s update that included the new parish groupings and my commentary on them because you weren’t signed up for parish email, you can find it on our website under Pastor’s Corner. If you missed it because you don’t have an internet connection, feel free to come into the parish office and they can give you some hard copies.
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias