Pastor’s Corner — November 14th, 2021
New Child Care Ministry
In an effort to meet the needs of our youngest parishioners, and to allow their parents a greater opportunity to attend parish events like Mass, Alpha, Bible studies, prayer groups or various parish events, we are forming a new child care ministry. In this initial stage, we are inviting those 18 years of age and older to consider serving the Lord by providing childcare. Additional information about the proposed program, compensation, and the requirements will be provided.
We have a lot of young families eager to be involved in events here at the parish and this would be an excellent way of living out our parish value of I Am Third in serving them. If you or someone you know is interested, please contact Ryan Nardozzi at rnardozzi@stpatchurch.org
Parish Renovation Unveiling: Tuesday, November 16 at 6:30pm
This Tuesday we will have a special presentation in the Church, sharing with the parish the exciting vision for our church renovation. This event will NOT be livestreamed for the simple fact that we are going to record it and prepare it to go on our YouTube channel for easy sharing. (We need to insert a video within a video that we can’t do live) If you can’t make it, please watch for the video in our YouTube channel the next day. More on this next week.
Archbishop Gomez Gets It: On New Political Religions
Like I said a couple weeks ago in my homily, when we are deeply rooted in our Christian vision of reality, it’s easier for us to see error for what it is. Loving God with our mind helps us see ideologies for what they are. Archbishop Gomez gets it and he writes about our new “political religions”:
“I believe the best way for the Church to understand the new social justice movements is to understand them as pseudo-religions, and even replacements and rivals to traditional Christian beliefs. With the breakdown of the Judeo-Christian worldview and the rise of secularism, political belief systems based on social justice or personal identity have come to fill the space that Christian belief and practice once occupied.
Whatever we call these movements— ‘social justice,’ ‘wokeness,’ ‘identity politics,’ ‘intersectionality,’ ‘successor ideology’ — they claim to offer what religion provides. They provide people with an explanation for events and conditions in the world. They offer a sense of meaning, a purpose for living, and the feeling of belonging to a community. Even more than that, like Christianity, these new movements tell their own “story of salvation.”
For those interested he breaks all these “profoundly atheistic” critical theories ideologies in a brilliant analysis. Click here to read the whole thing.
Parenting Kids for Purity: From Principal Dunphey
“Resurrection Parish and School in Lansing are sponsoring an opportunity for parents and middle school students to hear a chastity presentation. The parent presentation will be on November 17th at 7 PM and the one for middle school students will be on November 18th at 9:30 AM. Both events will be held in the church. The parent presentation will be live-streamed so more parents can attend, and we will ask for a free-will donation from families to help support these events and this ministry. Books and additional materials will be available for purchase in the back of the church after the events. In this era of smartphones and constant internet access, this might be the most important presentation for parents and young people.
I believe the attack on the family begins with the attack on the purity of our children. Please follow this link to see more from the Chastity Project, and join us on the 17th and bring your middle school or high schoolers on 18th. The events will be live-streamed but not available via a post event recording. Jason Evert is a dynamic speaker and his magnanimous personality is hard to capture through video so it is recommended to attend in-person, which does have the most impact. The event will also end in adoration, which is a powerful way for this message of purity to be sealed into our minds and hearts.”
For more information including the Livestream link for people to watch from home, please click here.
Your servant in Christ,
Fr. Mathias