Dear Friends of our Pastorate of the Visitation,
This weekend, we celebrate the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. What a change in Jesus’ response to Peter this week compared to last week. You may recall that Peter acknowledges Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. And in response to his proclamation of faith, Jesus proclaims Peter to be the rock on which His Church is to be built. Things are looking good for Peter! But now this week, Peter is rebuked by Jesus for stating that Jesus much not be allowed to suffer and die at the hands of the elders, the chief priest, and the scribes (Matthew 16:21-27). In reply, Jesus says “Get behind me Satan!” Quite the reversal of fortune for Peter.
But what Peter does not understand is that Jesus must do this in order to accomplish his mission. That is why he has come in the first place. Our human thinking naturally would be to rescue someone from having to suffer and die, but as we know, God’s ways are not like our ways. Jesus must take up His cross, and not only Jesus, but we too must be willing to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Jesus as well. That can be difficult to do, for it sounds so alien to what our world tells us is the way we should be living our lives. But the world’s ways are not God’s ways, no matter how hard we want to believe it. The journey of a Christian disciple is to surrender oneself to the will of God and trust that God’s way will lead us to perfect happiness. There will be challenges and difficulties along the way (such as the crosses we bear), but there is no resurrection without the crucifixion.
This past week, we celebrated Gina Bujanowski’s retirement after many years of service at St. Jane Frances and within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. We wish her well as she begins this new chapter in her life. Thank you Gina for all you have done for our pastorate!
As the new school year has begun for most of our young parishioners, we want to remind you to enroll your school aged kids in our Religious Education and Youth Ministry programs at the Pastorate. Classes will begin in September. Also this year, the 2027 cohort for Confirmation preparation will be all students in 6th to 8th grade (and older). Please be sure to sign up for Confirmation and plan to attend the 2027 Confirmation Family Team Meeting in September.
Finally, we are continuing to accept inquiries for our O.C.I.A. (Order of Christian Initiation of Adults) program. Deacon Phil is leading our Pastorate program this year, so if you would like to become Catholic (never been baptized or baptized in another Christian faith or never Confirmed), please reach out to Deacon Phil at phil.snyder@archbalt.org. The first meeting is this Monday, August 31st at 7:00pm in St. Jane Frances School, and will be held on subsequent Mondays throughout the year.
Thank you for keeping our Pastorate of St. Jane Frances and Our Lady of the Chesapeake in your daily prayers.
God Bless,
Father Steve
