Category: Parish News & Events

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“You have followed my teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, persecutions that I endured.” (2 Timothy 3:10) 

This second letter to Timothy was written as an encouragement to Timothy to help him in his ministry, to help him prepare for some of the practicality of being a missionary such as planning ahead for succession. The letter doesn’t pull any punches, it isn’t going to be all fun and games. It is going to take patience, love, endurance to not only survive but thrive through the persecutions, and sufferings that come. We are told straight out that, “all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

There used to be jokes on the internet about us and our first world problems. We would bemoan the lack of a charger for our phones or that the stores were out of some luxury item to which we had become accustomed. Now, all of a sudden, these jokes aren’t so funny. Even if we aren’t in the thick of it, we are watching as freezer trucks are used to house the bodies of our fellow citizens who have not survived the pandemic. We see thousands of our countrymen waiting in line for food for their families. We are seeing video of men dying at the hands of those who have no respect for life. We are watching whole segments of our society rise up in protest because they are considered as less worthy of living a first-world life and we are seeing those who are using their anguished protests as an excuse to riot and loot. Not only are the first world jokes no longer funny, just maybe they never were. 

What do we do as Catholic Christians? How do we clarify the eyes of our hearts so that we see the face of Jesus in everyone we meet? I am not talking about being colorblind. I am talking about seeing a person for who they were created to be because that is where we find Jesus in them.

Today is the Memorial of St. Boniface. Once again, the Church in her motherly wisdom provides us with a Saint who has been there. “Boniface bears out the Christian rule: To follow Christ is to follow the way of the cross. For Boniface, it was not only physical suffering or death but the painful, thankless, bewildering task of Church reform. Missionary glory is often thought of in terms of bringing new persons to Christ. It seems—but is not—less glorious to heal the household of the faith.” (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-boniface/) Those last sentences, “Missionary glory is often thought of in terms of bringing new persons to Christ. It seems-but it is not-less glorious to heal the household of faith.” We need to recognize where we have fallen short as a people of God. We can point to amazing people in the Church who have spent their lives working for social justice, but have we? Do we go farther than donating our used clothing? Farther than dropping off food at the food bank? Those are good things to do, but are they enough? We talk about the New Evangelization in a post-Christian world. We are not ministering to those who have never heard of Jesus Christ, but to those who have heard of or even met Jesus but haven’t allowed him to change their hearts. What lies before us is a much different task. 

2nd Timothy helps us. If we immerse ourselves in Holy Scripture and we model ourselves after the Saints who have gone before us, the Holy Spirit will guide us in discerning between trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man, and temptation, which leads to sin and death. (CCC 2847) As we face head-on these challenges in our modern world, as we pray and study and lead, we will come to see Jesus in each and every person, from conception to natural death. We will begin to not simply profess Catholic social teaching, we will live it. Our lives will become our testaments to the living God and his call to unity. 

Eternal God, the refuge and help of all your children,
we praise you for all you have given us,
for all you have done for us,
for all that you are to us.
In our weakness, you are strength,
in our darkness, you are light,
in our sorrow, you are comfort and peace.
We cannot number your blessings,
we cannot declare your love:
For all your blessings we bless you.
May we live as in your presence,
and love the things that you love,
and serve you in our daily lives;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Attributed to St. Boniface

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Sheryl delights in being the number 1 cheerleader and supporter for her husband, Tom who is a candidate for the Permanent Diaconate in the Diocese of Kalamazoo. They are so grateful for the opportunity to grow together in this process whether it is studying for classes, deepening their prayer life or discovering new ways to serve together. Sheryl’s day job is serving her community as the principal for St. Therese Catholic School in Wayland, Michigan. Since every time she thinks she gets life all figured out, she realizes just how far she has to go, St. Rita of Cascia is her go-to Saint for intercession and help. Home includes Brea, a Bernese Mountain dog and Carlyn, a very, very goofy Golden Retriever.

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It is striking how little our readings today speak about anyone other than God. Saint Paul tells Timothy to “remember Jesus Christ,” and to be faithful to God by presenting himself as a “workman who causes no disgrace” (2 Tim 2:8, 15). The Psalmist sits humbly before the Lord, asking to be taught. Jesus reminds his listeners that God comes first and that we ought to love Him with our whole selves.

This serves as a good reminder of why we should do all that we do. Being a father of a nearly six-month-old daughter and a husband working overtime, this can be easy to lose track of. There are many things that can shift my focus away from the Lord. Many of these are actually good, but they can take too central a place. Pleasing my wife, providing for my family, caring for my daughter – any one of these can become the reason that I do anything else.

It is easy to get so caught up in financial concerns, personal growth, and my relationship with my wife that God is barely present in my thoughts. I seek to serve the Lord, but I am usually thinking of my family or myself. This is not terrible, but our readings today remind us that we ought to have higher standards.

Today, we are reminded that the reason we should be doing everything that we do is love for God. This is more simple than we might think. It is not that we need to stop loving our neighbor or working for the good of our families. We simply need to do these things in a specific way, with the proper perspective and goal. We can still do things for the usual reasons, but it should all be directed to God. Practically, our readings can give us some tips:

We can take our first cue from the Psalmist, whose only desire is to learn God’s ways. He recognizes that guidance and wisdom come from the Lord. Sitting before the Lord in a humble posture of listening is essential for putting God first. Without first desiring to learn from God, we cannot truly love Him with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. We must sit at His feet, hear His Word, and carry it out. His ways should be our own; His Word should inform our words. Without this, we set the wrong foundation for ourselves.

Once we take the Lord’s instruction as our starting point, we can serve Him with fidelity. As Saint Paul explains in his letter to Timothy, we should be conducting ourselves honorably, “imparting the word of truth without deviation” (2 Tim 2:15). Rooted in the Word, we should speak what we hear, remaining in the Truth. Our relationship with God will be the basis for how we approach our lives, from our attitudes to our actions and conversations. All of these things should correspond to God’s commands and admonitions, and we should be sharing them with others.

Letting ourselves be formed by God and His commandments is great, but the fact is that we are not always thinking or talking about the Lord. Because of our duties of state, we cannot always speak directly about the Lord, teach the truth at every moment, or soak in Scripture for copious amounts of time. More often than not we are changing diapers, dealing with conflicts, planning for the future, or engaging in other mundane responsibilities.

Though it may seem like these moments are unrelated to our service to God, this is not the case. As with letting ourselves be formed by God, it is a matter of putting God first. We can still do our duties of state, but we can do them for the glory of God. As Christ points out by naming the second commandment after the greatest, the call to love our neighbor is not incompatible with the love of God. It simply needs to be subordinated to it.

Simply, what this means is that we ought to do all things for God’s glory. In offering it to God, everything that we do can become a prayer, however mundane. Once this is put into practice, every aspect of our lives will point to God. By listening to God, we set Him as our foundation. By speaking of His truths and commands, we share Him with others. By dedicating even a load of laundry to Him, we continue our sacrifice and give Him glory. If we can live in this way, we can truly love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength.

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David is the Associate Director of Liturgy for a group of parishes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When he is not spending time with his wife and infant daughter, he is writing on philosophy and theology for various online publications. You can find some of these in Crisis Magazine and the Imaginative Conservative, and you can contact him at ddashiellwork@gmail.com.

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Have we forgotten? Have we forgotten what it’s like to walk amongst a land of freedom, peace, and joy? A land flowing with milk and honey and dominion over the birds of the air and fish of the sea as gifts from our creator.

Have we forgotten the lonely pain that afflicted us striving to give of ourselves but coming up short from what the animals provide, an imitation of flattery, friendship, or affection?

Have we forgotten the deep sleep of our father as he lay to rest and was recreated with a newfound passion and joy? Have we forgotten the look that was given from the first couple in complete and utter love? No use, no ulterior motives, no you vs. me. Just complete trust and acceptance, understanding, and mutual respect.

Have we forgotten the feeling of the breath of our creator filling our lungs as we took each step in freedom from fear? Have we forgotten the experience of wealth beyond our wildest dreams? Not a wealth of this world, but of fulfillment, knowledge, and perfection.

Some would say the chasm between this portal of fantasy and folly is too far to be breached. The past is so far gone it is no longer a distant shadow, but a fading portrait of rumors and tall tales. Swimming around like a massive fish, getting bigger and bigger, but less and less true.

Some would go further and say we misremember our place. That we belong right there next to the animals, not with a dominion but as equals. Equals in freedom, intellect, and will. Debased to the point where our dignity doesn’t come from our creator but wells up from within ourselves. We make our own dignity and it can, therefore, be bought and sold, dragged and destroyed, hung up to dry like a pile of half washed clothes.

We are the “some” who would believe this faux image of man’s original light. The way we treat our fellow man has proven we have bought the bait. Our past not only washed away but erased like it never was. An empty tapestry of hopes and dreams and ambitions. We try to add more paint to cover up the mess, but it gets worse and worse till we cry out in pain for ourselves and others. Something must be missing. Something must have been forgotten. This can’t be all that the human person was meant to be?

“Are you not misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?”

That old dusty book grandma used to read to us late at night so we would quiet down or be stricken with the wrath of God? What could that possibly answer about our current predicament of hatred and fear? Misunderstanding and loneliness abound and some 2,000-year-old tired bedtime story is supposed to have the answer to our purpose? The pages begin flipping in a desperate attempt for something to lurch out and give the answer we so desperately need. Shuffling through the first few pages as the dust settles at our toes. Wondering, pleading, hoping. What is the answer? What does it mean to be human? Can we even begin to get back what we have seemed to have misplaced or completely forgotten? What is this modern-day thorn that pierces our very existence and threatens to choke us till we can’t breathe?

“Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness… So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them… God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”

We pause with a deep quizzical look of reflection overcoming our face. The question still remains. What is our modern-day thorn? Is it our disbelief in the scriptures or is it our lack of faith in the restorative power of God?

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Tommy Shultz is Director of Evangelization for the North Allegan Catholic Collaborative and the founder of Rodzinka Ministries. In these roles, he is committed to bringing all those he meets into a deeper relationship with Christ. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. With a degree in Theology from Franciscan University, Tommy hopes to use his knowledge to help all people understand the beauty of The Faith.