What a great moment of unity with our Bishop for the Mass held at St. Bronislava that concluded this year’s celebration of National Catholic Schools Week. The schools held many events for the students to enjoy. As the larger faith community, praying for our schools and seeing them as one of our main missions of our parishes is an aspect of evangelization and way of reaching out to the Stevens Point community.
Pope Leo put forth a new document on education recalling the Second Vatican Council’s encouragement for Catholic education, “Drawing New Maps of Hope” He writes “Christian education is a collective endeavour: no one educates alone. The educational community is a “we” where teachers, students, families, administrative and service staff, pastors and civil society converge to generate life. This “we” prevents water from stagnating in the swamp of “it has always been done this way” and forces it to flow, to nourish, to irrigate. The foundation remains the same: the person, image of God ( Gen 1:26), capable of truth and relationship. Therefore, the question of the relationship between faith and reason is not an optional chapter: “Religious Truth is not only a portion, but a condition of general knowledge.”
In our daily lives, how do we witness and draw others to Jesus so as to become members of His Church? We and the world are not perfect and need God’s grace. On Feb. 2nd I will be at the healing Mass held at Sacred Heart Parish in Marshfield.
Feb. 5th is the parish council meeting for St. Casimir. Meetings are times to reflect on how we can grow in the faith and how we can share the faith. Feb. 11th will be the anointing Mass at St. Peter. It is the “World Day of the Sick” and feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes. The idea of waiting until the last moment to receive the sacrament of the anointing is to miss the grace that God offers to heal us. Often the greatest healing we need is of the heart of who we are as children of God. As children we are always in need of growing and learning not only the faith but who our heavenly Father is and we as His children whom He longs to have come home to Him for eternity.