FROM FR. SCOTT: June 12, 2022
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June 10, 2022Welcome back to Ordinary Time! Our Easter Season has concluded, but our Church nonetheless gives us some awesome feasts to celebrate for the next few weekends. This Sunday is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. The Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, reveals that our one God exists eternally in a communion of love among the three Persons of the Trinity. In the love of the Trinity, there is the perfection of unity in diversity and diversity in unity. The communion of saints, family and parish life, and our unique God-given vocations are meant to express this perfection of unity and diversity. God has called us as many diverse parts united in the one Body of Christ, the Church. The Trinity is One God in Three Persons without division or dominance. May this perfect love of the Trinity pour forth into our hearts personally and communally in the life of the Church, that we may fulfill Christ's prayer "that all may be one" in Him.
Fr. Spisak 40th Anniversary Celebrations
We give thanks to God this weekend for Fr. Spisak on the occasion of his 40th anniversary of priesthood! Fr. Spisak will celebrate Mass at St. Patrick's at the 4:00 p.m. Vigil this Saturday and at St. Mary's at the 12:00 p.m. Sunday Mass. A reception will follow both of these Masses so that our parish communities can congratulate Fr. Spisak and rejoice in the gift of his priestly ministry to us. Fr. Spisak, thank you for sharing your priesthood with us!
Listening Session Sixth Theme
After a short pause, I am eager to offer the sixth and final main theme that was highlighted at our November Listening Sessions: Leadership, with its sub-themes of shepherding, collaboration, and presence. The number in parentheses corresponds to the number of times that particular sub-theme was mentioned in parishioner comments.
Shepherding: Many parishioners expressed hope and enthusiasm for a pastor who will guide them into an active parish life and a deeper knowledge of the Catholic faith. (31)
Collaboration: In addition to looking for dynamic leadership, the people of St. Mary are eager to work in union with a pastor who will engage their gifts for the good of the Church. (22)
Presence: People of all ages in the parish long for leadership that will be accessible, approachable, and will stay the course with them for as long as possible. (21)
The very nature of the November Listening Sessions invited thought and conversation as to what kind of pastoral leadership was hoped for by those who attended. While it is true that all the people of a parish are its “living stones” (1 Peter 2:4-5), everyone shared their understanding that the pastor plays an important role in shepherding others in such a way as to build up the Catholic faith for today and future generations.
In an address given by Pope Benedict XVI to a Pastoral Convention of the Diocese of Rome, his words resonated with the importance of the pastoral qualities named above through the voices of the people of St. Mary: shepherding, collaboration, and presence. At one point, in speaking directly to the priests, Pope Benedict said:
[Lay people] must no longer be viewed as “collaborators” of the clergy but truly recognized as “co-responsible”, for the Church’s being and action, thereby fostering the consolidation of a mature and committed laity. This common awareness of being Church of all the baptized in no way diminishes the responsibility of parish priests. It is precisely your task, dear parish priests, to nurture the spiritual and apostolic growth of those who are already committed to working hard in the parishes. They form the core of the community that will act as a leaven for the others. (Pope Benedict XVI, 2009).
Twelve years later, Pope Francis expressed a similar sentiment of the relationship of parish priests with their flock as he expressed his hope for the current synod, “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission”:
The Pastors, established by God as “authentic guardians, interpreters and witnesses of the faith of the whole Church,” should not be afraid to listen to the Flock entrusted to them.... It is in the fruitful bond between the sensus fidei of the People of God and the magisterial function of the Pastors that the unanimous consensus of the whole Church in the same faith is realized (Pope Francis, Synod 2023 Preparatory Document, 2021).Both popes are stating the important relationship between parish leadership and the People of God whom they shepherd. It’s a relationship defined and modeled by Jesus Christ: one of servant leadership, listening and guiding, loving and teaching.
I encourage you to pray with these themes, and visit https://stmarychardon.org/leadership to read through the individual comments expressed at the listening session.
