Pastor’s Corner — September 10th, 2023
Two New “Rest Stop” Opportunities At St Pat’s
Once traveling on the pathway/road of discipleship, we all need to rest and refuel. At St Pat’s, these “rest stops” as we’ve named them, are key formation opportunities that foster spiritual and intellectual maturity in the Christian life. As part of our pastoral strategy, we’ve discerned about eight key topics that we believe are essential for becoming missionary disciples today and made them “rest stops” for us. It is my vision that we’d offer one or two of these every fall and spring so that parishioners could take these opportunities to grow in maturity. Of course, not all parishioners can or will go through every one we offer, but if we’re offering something as a rest stop, it’s because we believe it’s an essential topic that we all need to be formed in to live the Christian life today.
This last spring we offered our first rest stop called, Called and Gifted, which led participants into understanding and discerning the powerful gifts of the Holy Spirit that God has given to them so that they can use them to build up his Kingdom. At the end of this month, we’re offering two more “rest stops” that I hope parishioners will come to:
1) Jesus and the Eucharist (Tuesdays starting Sept 24). This study is part of the National Eucharistic Revival and focuses on our relationship with the Lord in the Eucharist. The study materials/videos were put together by the U.S. Bishops and the Augustine Institute. This is one of the key things we’ll be doing this year for the Eucharistic Revival. Please click here for more information.
2) Introduction to the Theology of the Body (Thursdays starting Sept 26). This study gives an overview of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body which is his marvelous teaching on God’s plan for sex and marriage. This teaching absolutely changed my life and continues to rock people’s world. In light of the sexual confusion rampant today, if you aren’t familiar with how to explain and understand Christian teaching on sex and marriage, I strongly recommend this. Please click here for more information.
Like the rest of the Rest Stops, these studies are not meant to be comprehensive or scholarly, but a basic introduction to essential topics in which we Catholics need formation for our own maturity. Because we only have about eight of these topics, these won’t be the last time we’ll offer these topics. (Though a specific study such as the Eucharistic Revival might be unique one-time offering) Regardless, I strongly recommend that we take some time to learn more about our faith so we can live it out more faithfully and share it more freely. I’ll be assisting with both of these this fall and so I hope to see you there.
Marriages Are Affected by Excessive Smartphone Usage
In her recent research article for the Institute for Family Studies, “More Scrolling, More Marital Problems,” Wendy Wang argues that excessive smartphone use is linked to serious marital issues. If personal attentiveness to relationships is necessary for human flourishing, then anything that takes away attentiveness can cause serious difficulty in those relationships. It’s worth quoting Wang’s conclusion at length:
“It is difficult to determine for certain whether excessive phone use is the culprit of marital problems, given that addiction to phones may be an indicator of an already-unhappy marriage. Unhappy spouses might resort to using phones to escape and avoid communication with their partner. On the other hand, smartphones are engineered to be addictive. It is naïve to assume that adults would be totally immune to their design. The most likely scenario is that marital difficulty and addiction to smartphones are reinforcing each other, and that—without breaking out of the smartphone addiction—the underlying marital problems will be exacerbated to the breaking point and near impossible to address.
The fact that lower-income couples are more prone to distraction by phones at home is particularly troublesome. As we know, marriages are already more fragile for these couples and the marriage rate is much lower among lower-income and working-class Americans. The added strain of phone addiction further exacerbates the fragility of these marriages. Many troubled marriages have the potential to be healthier with some changes. Routine conversation, dates, and sex connect spouses and foster stability and happiness. A spouse spending more time on his or her phone will spend less time doing other things, such as reading a book, playing board games with the family, or connecting with family members. Addiction to smartphones crowds out the opportunity for couples to make time for one another. Time spent intentionally together is especially critical for low-income marriages, as the extended networks of such couples tend to be in a precarious state. In such a brittle social environment, spouses bear a greater psychological and relational load. Therefore, addiction to a device is a recipe for failure and, as we have seen, divorce.”
The results of this research shouldn’t surprise us. This also goes for single people, including priests, and prayer. Smartphone addiction hurts our relationships. Perhaps all of us can ask the Lord this question: “Is how I use my smartphone helping my relationship with my spouse/girlfriend/fiancé/God or is it hurting it?” Then we can prayerfully ask Our Lord to help us respond accordingly.
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias