Dear Parishioners,
This past Sunday we welcomed Auxiliary Bishop Eduardo Nevares to a packed SRO 11:00 Mass and full house for lunch. It was a wonderful expression of your community support to make our Bishop feel at home. Thank you all so much. The Religious Education program presented him with cards signed by all of the students and our parishioners also presented a giant rolled up canvas signed by many of you. A granite stone was given to the Bishop commemorating his visit. The stone is being placed at the base of our future statue of St. Steven’s.
Our ministries will meet with the Parish Council on February 25th to work on collating ideas for our year long celebration beginning October of this year and culminating on October 27th, 2013, with Bishop
Thomas J. Olmsted coming to celebrate our 25th and bless our statue.
Our statue committee, after lengthy deliberations and several meetings over this past year, has agreed unanimously on its final decision for our statue, choosing a very creative, thought-provoking image of St. Stephen just stoned to death, having his spirit raised from his body by an angel. There is an emphasis on martyrdom, sacrifice and resurrection to eternal life as promised for fidelity. I believe their choice will say a lot about the awakening of appreciation of how religious art can speak to us and help us grow in our faith.
These last several weeks in preparation for Lent, we have been addressing the topic of why Catholics come back home despite many reasons for their leaving. I would suppose that returning Catholics want to be healed as they struggle with the spiritual wounds of anger at God over bad things that have happened in their lives—like terminal illness, a weakening injury, a broken life relationship, mental or emotional problems or an act of violence against a totally innocent member of their family or personal friend, an unexplainable accident or a natural disaster, the death of a loved one or a deep disappointment. The Catholic Church cannot change these situations or explain why they happened but there are people in the Church who can help assist in spiritual healing and help you get on with your life.
Many Catholics who leave the Church for a while, have the experience of worshiping in another Christian denomination. But when they return, they realize that Catholicism has the fullness of truth and grace. The Catholic Church was not founded by a single reformer or historical movement. It is not fragmented by any individual interpretation of Scripture. There are thousands of Christian denominations but only one Catholic Church, which has been guided and protect by the Holy Spirit from generation to generation for some two thousand years.
These are just a couple more of the reasons why Catholics come back and should be welcomed with open arms and offered every opportunity to learn what the Catholic Church really believes and teaches, and offered an adult class to share in and have questions answered.
I will continue next week with more reasons why Catholics come home and it is always a good time to come home because we are here for you at St. Steven’s.
Fr. Pierre
