A Message from Fr. David – February 13, 2022

Lectors Ministry Workshop

This past Tuesday I met with our Lectors for a workshop. The workshop functioned as a time to regroup and refocus on this immensely important ministry in our parish. I am wholeheartedly grateful for their faithfulness to the Word, our parish, and the ministry in which they are invited to participate.

As Catholics, for too long we underestimated the presence of God in the Sacred Scriptures. We can be sure that each time we read the Scriptures or hear the Scriptures proclaimed in the liturgy, God’s spirit is dynamically at work. God’s Word is living and true as inspired by the Holy Spirit.

It is crucial that each time the lector proclaims the Word of God in the liturgy, he or she come prepared to deliver that Word. Friends, do we, as hearers of the Word, come prepared to listen to the Word at Mass?

National Marriage Week and World Marriage Day

The observances of National Marriage Week (February 7-14) and World Marriage Day (Sunday, February 13) are opportunities to focus on building a culture of life and love that begins with supporting and promoting marriage and the family.

Shape each time I meet with an engaged couple preparing for the Sacrament of Marriage, I point out that every healthy marriage, no matter what stage it’s in, needs to maintain some measure of romantic love, date-nights, spontaneous gift giving, and words & actions of affirmation.

Just as people have different personalities, though, different marriages do too, and most marriages don’t maintain that full force “romantic” feeling forever. And we should not expect them to. When people mix up married love with romantic love, they wrongly feel that their marriage is in decline when the romance begins to fade. There are fewer rose-petal baths and more college tuition invoices. There are no more love songs and an awful lot of day-to-day drudgery. Fading romance in a culture that tells couples they can quit when it gets hard, leave when they “fall out of love,” or their spouse “doesn’t make them happy anymore,” is a recipe for discouragement and the kinds of negative, selfish thoughts that can lead to divorce.

This week may be a blessed opportunity for all married couples to recall the great power in the Sacrament of Marriage.

In those moments when you’re looking for some much-needed assistance in your marriage from the Big Guy above, try this simple prayer (W.I.T. Prayer): Lord, do this With me, do this In me, do this Through me.

Quote of the Week

Today we still cast the net. And Christ fills it. And Christ calls to conversion those who are found . . . among the waves and tempests of the world.

Cyril of Alexandria