Pastor’s Corner — July 3rd, 2022
My Pastoral Letter, “The End of Roe: Responding to This Moment”
All of you should have received via parish email my important Pastoral Letter that I wrote on the Supreme Court’s decision last week to strike down Roe and Casey which put the question of abortion back to the states. If you didn’t receive this email, then please remember to sign up for our email communication as not everything we communicate fits or is appropriate for the bulletin. (You can do that by going to our website and clicking on the “Media” tab in the top right corner.) If you are signed up and didn’t receive it, please check your Spam folder. My letter is also available now on our website under “Pastor’s Corner.” While the digital version of this letter is very important because of the links contained therein, for those who simply do not have access to the internet, you can come to the welcome desk this weekend to grab a hard copy.
The purpose of this letter is to offer the parish a few points on how we can continue to respond in this historic moment both in salvation history and in the history of our country. In it I offer several points:
- Continue to Praise and Thank God for This Victory
- Be Merciful to People who are Pro-Abortion
- Resist the Over Politicization of the Moral Issue of Abortion
- Know Your Stuff about Dobbs
- Resist Doublespeak and Euphemisms about Abortion
- Continue to Being Pro-Life by Caring for the Vulnerable and Needy
This is an important letter that I’d like the whole parish to read.
Welcome Marissa Dawson, Coordinator of Youth Discipleship
As part of the new discipleship pathway and the growing youth ministry program, we have hired Marissa Dawson as our new Coordinator of Youth Discipleship. (Even though Kevin Bailey has transitioned into a new role as Director of Discipleship, he will still be present to the youth on Sundays and continue to run our new confirmation program.) We are excited to have Marissa on our team. She introduces herself below:
Hi, everyone! I’m excited to be joining the community of St. Patrick to begin serving in the role of Coordinator of Youth Discipleship. I’m moving to the Brighton area from Saline (southwest of Ann Arbor), where I’ve served as the Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry at St. Andrew the Apostle for the past 6 years. I’m looking forward to meeting many of you soon, and diving right in working with the youth this summer. In the meantime, here’s a little bit of information about me:
After graduating from Saline High School (St. Andrew also happens to be the parish I attended, growing up), I went to Kalamazoo College and received my Bachelor of Arts in 2014. After college, I worked for Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw County for a couple of years.
During this time, I spent a lot of time volunteering on the youth ministry Core Team at St. Andrew, which helped me recognize my passion for sharing God’s love with teens and helping them grow as his disciples. I was hired to be the Youth Minister in May of 2016, and there really aren’t enough words to capture how much love and joy God has given me through these past several years of ministry at St. Andrew. I feel very blessed that God has now called me to St. Patrick to continue ministering to teens and their families!
Some things that I enjoy in my free time are doing craft/hands-on projects, gardening, listening to podcasts, doing crossword puzzles, and listening/singing along to praise and worship music. While I don’t currently live with any other humans, I do have a cat named Kingsley (he’s a fairly good roommate, even if a bit of a slacker on household chores). My family doesn’t live nearby, so a daily highlight for me is staying in touch with my sisters (one in Pittsburgh, one in Grand Rapids) and my parents (in Naples, FL). My favorite way to pray is with scripture, and my favorite “go-to” prayer in a pinch is, “Jesus, I trust in you”.
Encounter Ministries Presentation This Weekend
Many parishioners know that I’m reticent to promote Encounter Ministries much here in the parish. I’m a little shy for two reasons: 1) I want people to know that the parish and Encounter really are very separate and I’m concerned that if I promoted it too much it could get confusing. 2) I want those who have participated in the ministry or attended events to share about their experience. The fruit of the ministry is in our students whose lives have been transformed and it’s their story to tell.
For those who might be new to the parish, I am the President and Co-Founder of Encounter Ministries, which is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit Catholic ministry that has its home here at St. Patrick’s. (The other Co-Founder is my friend Patrick Reis who is the Executive Director) The ministry exists to train, equip and activate Catholics to demonstrate the love of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. Essentially it forms missionary disciples in how to use the gifts of the Spirit to help make Jesus known and loved. We do this primarily through the two-year School of Ministry and weekend conferences.
The relationship between the parish and the ministry is mutually enriching. On the one hand, the parish allows Encounter to use the PLC Activities Room and the Church on Mondays (and for special events) and leases to Encounter unused space on our property (AFFC upstairs and the 135 Becker property), which is a source of needed income to the parish. But on the other hand, Encounter has served hundreds of parishioners through weekend conferences and our School of Ministry from which dozens of parishioners have graduated. The ministry has grown significantly the past few years and as of this fall, we will have over twenty satellite campuses world-wide.
I believe Encounter is an expression of the move of the Holy Spirit here and in the wider Church and so I encourage people to be open to coming to the Summer Intensive to learn more. If you want to sign up for the summer intensive go here. St. Pat’s parishioners can receive a 50% discount with this code: EMstpats50
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Mathias