Gratitude

Brothers and Sisters,

Do we live with an attitude of gratitude? When we see that everything we have and everything we experience is a gift from God, freely given to us when we do not deserve such goodness, then how can we not be grateful and thankful to God for His goodness to us?

What is gratitude? It is an awareness of, and appreciation for, the good things in our life and not taking them for granted. It is a spiritual attitude where we accept whatever God offers. It is also internal strength of character that we can develop by acknowledging the role of other people in making our life possible and enjoyable.

In this week’s gospel (Lk 17:11-19), Jesus reminds us of the importance of gratitude to God for the blessings we have received from Him. In the reading from Luke’s gospel, what caught the admiration of Jesus about the Samaritan leper was simply that he, “turned back, praising God at the top of his voice, and threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.” When was the last time we expressed this kind of gratitude to God? Gratitude to God is an expression of our faith in His saving power.

If we can bring our cares and concerns, our worries and our problems to the Lord, we can, and we must, also bring our grateful hearts, our reasons for thanks to worship God who is the source of all goodness in our lives.

So let us pray that we might be grateful. Let us bring all of ourselves to God in thanksgiving. Let us pray that we might see all of the many things that God has blessed us with, and that we may truly say thank you to God today as we open our hearts to Him.

God Bless,
Deacon Howard

Faith And Mustard Seeds

Dear SJF/OLC Pastorate Friends,

This weekend, one of the themes of our readings is Faith. Faith is a gift from God that is freely offered to each and every one of us, but it is a gift that requires our cooperation in order to be fully manifested in our lives. As we hear in the Gospel, the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith, but as Jesus responds to their inquiry, it sounds like faith is not something we need a larger “quantity” of. On the contrary, having faith the size of mustard seed is more than enough to accomplish miraculous things.

When we are being tried by the daily cares and anxieties of life, and therefore are unable to experience this gift of faith in a meaningful way, it does sometimes feel like the Lord doesn’t hear us or doesn’t seem to be concerned with our struggles. However, we ought to know that this could not be further from the truth! The Lord is always standing at the door waiting for us to invite Him into our struggles and our fears, if only we keep the slightest flicker of faith burning within us. It is like the embers in a fire pit that may seem like they are dying out, unable to continue burning. But in reality, all they need is a dry piece of wood in order to be ignited once again. So when we feel dry, when our faith feels weak or lacking, then in some sense we are primed and ready to be enkindled once again. And this can be accomplished by only having faith the size of a mustard seed, which is pretty small. This week, find the time to stir into flame this gift from God, our faith, that you have already received. It is still there within you!

I would like to thank Fr. Jim, the Knights of Columbus, the Scouts, and the parishioners of both parishes who assisted with the Axe Throwing and Log Splitting Challenge at St Jane’s this past week. There was an awesome turnout of people and families from both parishes! It was a special occasion for me to see people from both of our pastorate parishes coming together for a singular event. Although we are in our infancy concerning the launch of our Pastorate, it is great to see these activities that bring us together being so well attended. (And it was great to beat Fr. Jim 12-0 in our head-to-head axe throwing challenge!) Stay tuned for more pastorate-wide activities in the coming weeks, which can be found in the bulletin.

Thank you for keeping us in your daily prayers as we certainly do for each of you!

God Bless,
Father Steve

Rich Man, Poor Man

Dear SJF/OLC Pastorate Friends,

Our Gospel this weekend is the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Lk 16:19-31). This teaching from Jesus is unique to Luke’s Gospel. It sets up a contrast between how we choose to live our lives in relation to the people around us, and challenges us not only to acknowledge the needs of those less fortunate than ourselves, but to respond and address those needs by helping them as our means allow. 

The parable leaves us with an uncomfortable image of the rich man, the one who had wealth, power, and prestige in his earthly life, now dwelling after death in a place that sort of sounds like hell. Meanwhile, Lazarus, who suffered daily at the rich man’s door, but never received any assistance from him, is now at the bosom of Father Abraham in what sort of sounds like heaven. This reversal of fortunes from this life to eternal life between Lazarus and the rich man hopefully will awaken us to the “Lazaruses” in our world today and compel us to action in service to those in need. At least that is what Jesus is trying to convey to the hearers of this parable. 

One of the missions of the local parish community is to assist those in need around us by using the gifts of our time, talent and treasure. There are times when it seems like the needs are way beyond our means or the means of our parish, but yet that is not a reason to do nothing. Assisting those in need can begin with our own parishioners, but it must go beyond the four walls of our church and reach out into the surrounding community. One of the ways we can help others in need is through the Annual Appeal for Catholic Ministries which is conducted by the Archdiocese every year. There is still time to give to the appeal by going to archbalt.org and click on “Giving.”

Your financial gifts to the parish are also very much appreciated as they allow us to continue our mission of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ—aka Evangelization! In this weekend’s bulletin is a report to the parish concerning our financial results for the fiscal year which ended June 30, 2022 and a summary of our Finance Committee approved parish budget for fiscal year 2023, which began July 1, 2022. I have also included a written summary of our financial results. Please review and feel free to send any questions to me or any member of our Finance Committee. I would like to thank the Finance Committee for their assistance and support in helping us to be good and faithful stewards of the resources you have entrusted to the parish for the mission of evangelization. 

Thank you for keeping us in your daily prayers as we certainly do for each of you!

God Bless,
Father Steve

Lots Of Fun Stuff Going On This Fall!

Dear SJF/OLC Pastorate Friends,

I would like to thank everyone who helped with welcoming Archbishop Lori to our pastorate parishes. It was a wonderful way to celebrate our unity in Christ and the faith of our two parish communities. Thank you!

I would like to introduce a couple new members of our staff at the pastorate. First, I would like to
welcome Bethany Butters to OLC as our Administrative Assistant. Bethany was volunteering to help in the office while I was on sabbatical. When I returned, the staff told me to hire her! So I did. Bethany and her husband, Kyle, are parishioners at OLC and have two children. Bethany is ready to help with whatever you need, so please feel free to call her (ext. 102), email her at bbutters@olchesapeake.org, or stop by the office.

The second person I would like to introduce is Diana Healy. Diane has been hired to assist both parishes
with Middle School Youth Ministry and the “back office” paperwork required for Baptisms. Diana also will be helping (as her schedule permits) with other aspects of our youth faith formation. She has worked for the Archdiocese in the past as a youth minister and brings her experience with her to our parishes. Diana is also married and has two children and lives in Ellicott City. She can be reached at dhealy@stjane.org. I ask you to keep two other employees in your prayers: Sr. Sally Russell (OLC) and Gina Bujanowski (SJF). Both are continuing to deal with health issues that have kept them from being in the office and able to serve the pastorate. In speaking to them both, I know they appreciate your prayers for their healing, and are eager to return to the parishes.

Mark your calendars for the many exciting events occurring at both parishes! This week starts the Walking With Purpose Women’s Bible Study at both Parishes. Also, we have the Men’s Axe Throw & Log Splitting event at SJF on 9/24, followed by the Family Movie Night at 7:30pm, Atlantic City Bus trip on 9/26, KofC Crab Feast at SJF on 10/1, the Blessing of Animals in honor of St. Francis in early October, Trunk or Treat on 10/28 at OLC, and the Sight and Sound bus trip to see “David” on 11/15. And Fr. Jim will be launching the “Into the Breach” Men’s Video Series in October. I am sure there are more things going on so be sure to check the bulletins and our websites for more information.

Our program for the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) is starting up tomorrow, September 19th, at 7:00pm Rm 107 at SJF School. My former employee and good friend, April Dietrich, will be leading RCIA this year for the pastorate. It’s not too late to join the program. If you or someone you know were never baptized, or if you were baptized Catholic but never confirmed, or if you were baptized in another Christian faith, and would like to join the Catholic Church, this is the program for you! Contact April at RCIA@stjane.org or Melissa at MBoyle@stjane.org for more information.

Thank you for keeping us in your daily prayers as we certainly do for each of you!

God Bless,
Father Steve

The Shock Heard Round The World

Dear Parishioners,

In the parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:1-32), the son asking for his inheritance from his father who is still living is like saying: “Dad, I wish you were dead, because then I could get your money. Since I neither love nor respect you, why don’t you just give me my inheritance now?” But more shocking than the son’s shameful request is the father’s response: he freely gives the inheritance to him!

The father is seemingly an accomplice to the son’s irresponsible behavior, knowing that his son is prodigal (wastefully extravagant). At this point we realize that the parable is not about a natural father (who would not give in to such a brazen request) but rather about the Father who is God. This leaves us with the first important first point of the parable: God’s greatest gift to humanity is extravagantly wasteful: our human freedom. In other words, God wills that every human person have virtually autonomous free will, which is a sign of His great love for us, because without it, we would be like puppets on a string or robots constrained to do only what we are forced to do. On the flip side, such virtually unlimited freedom is also the source of human evil and suffering (let’s come back to this).

The Boundless Mercy of God. Fascinated with his illusory freedom and abandoning his father’s house, the son squanders his fortune and finds himself in extreme misery and deep humiliation at feeding swine, longing to eat their food. When he hits rock bottom, he reflects on all he has lost, repents, decides to declare himself guilty before his father, and journeys back home. At this point, we see that the central character of the story, the father, is exceedingly merciful: he generously welcomes his son, is filled with compassion and joy, and gives him a beautiful robe, a ring, and the festive banquet symbolizing new life—pure, worthy, and joyful—a dramatic story of conversion and returning to God and His family, the Church (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1439).

The Point of the Story: God is an All-Powerful and All-Loving, Merciful Father. While many people do not believe in God because of human evil and suffering, the parable of the prodigal son provides insight into the mystery of why God deliberately chooses to not intervene in human free will that causes suffering: the prodigal son would have NEVER experienced the immeasurable depth of his father’s merciful love if he didn’t have complete freedom and autonomy of his will. But one more thing is necessary for this explanation to work: God must have the power to bring good from evil—from all human suffering—and this is precisely the God we believe in, the God who rose from the dead: the greatest evil led to the greatest good. Suffering makes sense only from the perspective of eternity, from an all-powerful, all-loving and merciful God.

Run to the Father. Whenever we fall, like the prodigal son, we, too, can return to the Father; this is why Jesus gave us the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Be like the Father. While God the Father longingly waits for all of his children to return home to Him, He is not passive about it. He sends you and me out among those He has put in our lives to be lovingly merciful like the father of the prodigal son, and to point the way to God the allpowerful and all-loving Father.

Peace in Christ,
Fr. Jim

End Of Summer Rhythms

Dear SJF/OLC Pastorate Friends,

As we approach Labor Day this weekend, our thoughts begin to turn toward post summer events
and activities. Schools have reopened. Summer vacations are completed. Life, hopefully, begins to settle
into the usual rhythms of this time of year. One of the rhythms we are encouraging this year, as well, is
returning to weekly Mass. We miss you! So we invite you to come home and join us, as we are nourished
and nurtured by God’s Word and Jesus’ Body and Blood which we receive in the Eucharist.

Next Sunday, September 11th, we are welcoming Archbishop Lori to our Pastorate. The Archbishop
will be celebrating the 8:30am Mass at Our Lady of the Chesapeake and the 11:30am Mass at St. Jane
Frances. Fr. Jim and I will be concelebrating both Masses as well. I hope you will be able to join us for Mass and welcome Archbishop Lori to the “Dena.”

This is also the season when we begin our catechetical programs. One program that is essential to
our efforts to evangelize is the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, aka RCIA. Due to several
circumstances, this year’s RCIA will be held on Mondays, from 7:00pm–8:30pm at St. Jane Frances. If you were never baptized, or if you were baptized Catholic but never confirmed, or if you were baptized in
another Christian faith, and would like to join the Catholic Church, this is the program for you! Classes will begin later this month. For more information, please contact Fr. Steve or Fr. Jim.

Please continue to keep in our prayers all of our students, teachers, and staffs of our local Catholic,
private and public schools. These recent years have been very difficult for the education field, so we pray
for all who serve the needs of our students in whatever capacity. We also are preparing for our pastorate
parishes’ religious education programs to begin this month. If you have not yet registered, please do so.
Information for registering at either parish can be found on our websites: www.stjane.org or
www.olchesapeake.org. This is also the time to register your child for 1st Reconciliation, 1st Eucharist (both 2nd Grade), and Confirmation (9th – 10th Grade).

Thank you for keeping us in your daily prayers as we certainly do for each of you!

God Bless,
Father Steve

Humility And Prayer

Brothers and Sisters,

The readings this week call our attention to a very important Christian virtue: humility. It is an attribute and quality of God which all his children must strive to possess and live. We are therefore encouraged this Sunday to reflect deeply on this great virtue. We are called to imitate the humility of Jesus Christ our Lord, who is meek and humble of heart.

In the gospel (Lk 14:1, 7-14), Jesus exhorts us: “…Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the man who humbles himself will be exalted.” Jesus teaches the importance of humility and simplicity in our Christian journey. In this regard, we have a lot to learn from him. True humility, as Jesus teaches, does not seek repayment. We are to serve others, not expecting to be served in return.

There is nothing to lose by being humble. Proverb tells us that: “Humility and the fear of the Lord brings wealth, honor, and life” (Prov 22:4). On the contrary, pride results in defeat and shame. Any spiritual life that is not based on humility will definitely be an empty one. This is because such a Christian will only work for himself and without regards for others. True humility involves going out of our way and out of our comfort zone to interact with those most in need.

Finally, the church teaches us that: “Humility is the foundation of prayer.” Only a humble heart can come and prostrate before God in prayer. A humble person is always ready to ask for guidance from God and from others. He is also ready to listen, and learn from others. It takes humility to give praise, and also, to ask for forgiveness. So, let us humbly ask the Lord: “O Jesus! Meek and humble of heart, make my heart like yours.”

God Bless,
Deacon Howard