News from P.I.T. (Pastor in Training)
From the Pastor’s Desk
February 21 – First Sunday of Lent
This Wednesday I begin a six-week reflection and discussion series “Living Your Baptism in Lent.” It is held on Wednesdays from 7:00pm – 8:30pm. You can participate in person or via zoom. Registration is on the parish website.
So why discuss baptism in Lent? Most people think of Lent as a time of penance, giving up some pleasure, going to confession, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. Lent is that, but it is also more. Lent is also a time for the faithful to PREPARE to renew your baptismal promises on Easter Sunday. Most people give little thought to their baptismal promises because most people were baptized as infants and your parents and godparents made the baptismal promises for you at a time you were not cognizant of the meaning of those promises. When you were baptized, your parents and godparents said “yes” for you to the following questions:
• Do you reject sin so as to live in the freedom of God’s children?
• Do you reject the glamour of evil, and refuse to be mastered by sin?
• Do you reject Satan, the father of sin and prince of darkness?
• Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth?
• Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father?
• Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?
The question then as we have grown up is how well each of us have understood, embraced and lived those promises that were once made for us by our parents and godparents? The Lenten theme of conversion is also an important part of our understanding of Baptism. Conversion is a LIFELONG process and Lent helps us to remember that. Lent is about responding to the grace of Baptism. Lent is a time to intentionally respond to God’s call. At our baptism we were given the Holy Spirit. Lent invites us to consider the movement of the Holy Spirit already in us.
Whether you are able to join my presentations and discussion, use the above questions to reflect on your baptism this Lent, and be PREPARED to renew YOUR baptismal promises this Easter.
Have a blessed week!
Father Don
From the Pastor’s Desk
February 14 – Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time
In addition to today being the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, it is also World Marriage Sunday. How appropriate – Valentine’s Day! I will share with you some points about the day from the Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:
- The readings for today highlight our need for Jesus as the Divine Physician. The Old Testament reading from Leviticus lays out the law for those who have contracted leprosy: such persons would be declared unclean, turned out from society, and made to live apart from others in efforts not to spread the disease. If a person were to touch a leper, they would then be declared unclean as well, facing the same restrictions.
- Jesus, “moved with pity…stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, ‘I do will it. Be made clean.” The act of Jesus actually touching a leper would have shocked those around him. Love reaches out and touches others. Jesus touches this man, regardless of the risk of being ostracized himself. True love does not count the cost. Jesus gives all for all, unreservedly because his love knows no limits.
- Every marriage is meant to be a little icon of the love of Christ and his bride, the Church. The love shared between a man and a woman in holy matrimony points us to the self-emptying, self-sacrificing love God has for each one of us.
- The promises that married couples make to each other illustrate what this love looks like lived out in the day to day experience: to have and to hold, exclusively, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, to cherish, to honor until death. A person gives everything to his or her spouse.
- The continuation of living life amid a global pandemic may have some married couples reflecting that this has been a season of “for worse, for poorer, and in sickness.” There are many married couples who are suffering right now: marital strain, illness, unemployment, etc. The sacrament of marriage provides the grace necessary to weather the storms of marriage and family life.
On this World Marriage Day, I thank all married couples for the witness of their sacrificial love “to have, to hold, to honor”!
Have a blessed week!
Father Don
From the Pastor’s Desk
February 7 – Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Why me? That is the universal question everyone asks when faced with suffering! That suffering can be physical with a terminal diagnosis. That suffering can be the loss of a job or home. That suffering can be the emotional pain and grief of losing a loved one or a divorce. That suffering can be the loss of broken family relationship. The list can go on and on. And “why me” seldom if ever leads to a satisfying answer. And so today we hear of the plight of the Old Testament figure, Job.
At the time of Job, suffering was seen as punishment for sin. It still is by many today. In the time of Job, there was no understanding of an afterlife of happiness, and hence no hope of God’s “making it up to you” for suffering. This compounds Job’s misery. He has lost the only happiness he thinks possible – in spite of being a good and righteous man. It seemed that God was punishing him for no reason at all.
As Christians, we are taught to live by faith, and usually we do. When doubt casts a shadow over our faith, it’s especially unsettling. We feel a second loss – loss of confidence in the faith we counted on. However, doubt IS NOT THE SIGN OF A WEAK FAITH OR A SINFUL SPIRIT. It’s NOT an insult to God, nor is it an act of disloyalty. Pope Francis wrote that “trusting in God does not mean never arguing with Him.” Thomas Merton wrote, “Faith means doubt. Faith is not the suppression of doubt. It is the overcoming of doubt, and you overcome doubt by going through it.” Paul Tillich wrote, “Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element OF faith.” In other words, do not doubt that God can handle your doubt, whether occasioned by suffering or by something else.
The valuable question about our personal suffering is not “why?” Instead the valuable and practical questions is, “What am I going to do with it?” We can chose the “woe is me” path, or we can chose, like the suffering of Christ himself, to accept and offer our suffering WITH Christ and then our suffering has the power to accomplish good. When suffering comes your way, and it will, pray to God for the grace to offer your sufferings for the good of others.
Today Boy Scout Sunday is celebrated. We look forward to the time when our Cub and Boy Scout Troops sponsored by Our Lady of Mercy can meet again at OLM.
Ash Wednesday is two weeks away. Please remember to pre-register to attend a Mass or Scripture Service. Also, due to COVID, the sign of the cross with ashes will not be traced on your forehead. Instead, ashes will be sprinkled like a “pinch of salt” on top of your head.
Have a blessed week!
Father Don
From the Pastor’s Desk
January 31 – Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
This week the Church throughout the country celebrates “Catholic Schools Week.” The theme this year is: “Catholic Schools: Faith. Excellence. Service.” Catholic schools have a specific purpose to form students to be good citizens of the world, love God and neighbor and enrich society with the leaven of the gospel and by examples of faith.
Our Lady of Mercy parish is one of the five financially supporting parishes of the inter-parish Catholic grammar school All Saints Catholic Academy on Aurora Avenue in Naperville. There are many choices of Catholic grammar and high schools in the area for parishioners who want to send their children to a Catholic grammar school. Our Lady of Mercy specifically promotes All Saints Catholic Academy because the school and our parish is in the Diocese of Joliet. The other ten Catholic parishes in Aurora are a part of the Diocese of Rockford. While we provide tuition assistance for registered and active parents of OLM for their children attending a Catholic grammar school in the Rockford Diocese, our primary support and promotion is for All Saints Catholic Academy.
All Saints Catholic Academy provides Catholic education from pre-school through 8th grade, and has had in person instruction since school began last August. Mass is celebrated weekly on Wednesday at 8:15am. Often times I am the celebrant. It is an excellent school with a strong and dedicated administration, faculty and staff. I invite you to check it out at: ascacademy.org
As communities of faith, Catholic schools instill in students their destiny to become saints. Academic excellence is the hallmark of Catholic education intentionally directed to the growth of the whole person – mind, body and spirit. Service is fundamental to Catholic education and the core of Catholic discipleship. Service is intended to help form people who are not only witnesses to Catholic social teaching but also active participants through social learning. Catholic schools, like the Catholic Church is not a building or an institution, but it is the people. As the people of God, we work together to bring the Kingdom of God to Earth and raise up the next generation to do the same!
I encourage our parents with grammar and high school age children to check out Catholic Schools as an option for their children’s education. And I thank all the dedicated staff and teachers who make a financial sacrifice by their dedication to Catholic education!
Have a Blessed week!
Father Don
From the Pastor’s Desk
January 24 – Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
In the bulletin of January 10, I gave a Big Christmas Thank You to those involved with the planning and implementation of our Christmas liturgies. Whenever I publicly recognize persons or groups for their service, inevitably I forget to mention someone or group. This time I failed to include the many volunteer greeters in my Christmas Thank You. I apologize. The greeter ministry at OLM is so very important. It is the greeters, holding the doors open and welcoming all who come to OLM that give that first sense of hospitality to those who pass through our doors. So thank you! Not only at Christmastime but all those Saturday/Sunday Masses throughout the year, rain, cold, snow we thank you for your smiling face and words of welcome! We welcome additional individuals and families who would like to join the greeter ministry. Please contact Phil Zwick at philiipzwick@yahoo.com.
Today, the Third Sunday in Ordinary time is “Word of God Sunday” proclaimed by Pope Francis in 2019. In the Introduction to the Lectionary for Mass, we are reminded of the role of the Word of God in the life of the Church:
“In the hearing of God’s word the Church is built up and grows, and in the signs of the liturgical celebration God’s wonderful, past works in the history of salvation are presented anew as mysterious realities. God in turn makes use of the congregation of the faithful that celebrates the Liturgy in order that his word may speed on and be glorified and that his name be exalted among the nations. Whenever, therefore, the Church, gathered by the Holy Spirit for liturgical celebration, announces and proclaims the word of God, she is aware of being a new people in whom the covenant made in the past is perfected and fulfilled. Baptism and confirmation in the Spirit have made all Christ’s faithful into messengers of God’s word because of the grace of hearing they have received. They must therefore be the bearers of the same word in the Church and in the world, at least by the witness of their lives. The word of God proclaimed in the celebration of God’s mysteries does not only address present conditions but looks back to past events and forward to what is yet to come. Thus God’s word shows us what we should hope for with such a longing that in this changing world our hearts will be set on the place where our true joys lie.”
Have a Blessed Week and take some time to read Sacred Scripture this week!
Father Don