From the Pastor's Desk | February 9, 2025

Adoration on Fridays

We have a good number of people signed up as committed adorers on Fridays (emphasis on the word committed).  The goal is to have two committed people each hour to ensure that someone is always with the Lord in Adoration.  We still need some folks to fill time slots, so please continue to pray about this.  You can sign up by scanning the QR code or call the parish office. 

Once all of the slots are filled with two people, I will gather everyone who has signed up for a little formation meeting, making this a core group of prayer within our parish.  

Healing Prayer

On Wednesday, February 19, after the 6:00 pm Mass and during Adoration, a group of folks from the Encounter School (St. Patrick’s Brighton) will be available for prayer ministry around the back of the church.  Tony Andorfer will play light music during Adoration so that the personal prayer requests can be discreet.  In Acts 1:8, Jesus promises his Apostles that the power of the Holy Spirit will come upon them.  By virtue of our Baptism and Confirmation, we have received that same power.  There is power in prayer!  If you would like to be prayed with, please come to Mass on February 19 and stay for the prayer ministry.  This is a great opportunity to experience the healing power of prayer.  

Parish Mission

Please mark your calendars for our joint Parish Mission with St. Mary Williamston on March 16 and 17.  More details are forthcoming.  In the meantime, please pray for the success of our planning and the fruit of our work.

Gospel Reflection

As is often the case, the Gospel this week is packed!  The connection between the first reading and the Gospel is the perceived unworthiness of both Isaiah and Peter.  

In the first reading, after seeing the glorious vision of the Lord seated in His majesty with His angels surrounding Him singing praise, Isaiah rightly recognizes his unworthiness.  He says, "Woe is me, I am doomed!  For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

In our Gospel, Simon (Peter) has been hard at work fishing all night with no success.  He’s ready to give up.  Yet, Jesus asks him to go further out and put his nets down into deeper water.  After catching a great number of fish at Jesus’ command, he is filled with amazement but also realizes how unworthy he is to be in the presence of the Lord.  He says, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  

I think it is fair to assume that we have all felt this way at some point in our lives - that we are unworthy to approach the Lord.  Perhaps we feel this unworthiness because of our sinful behaviors, attitudes, thoughts, feelings, or desires.  On one hand, it is a holy feeling to know that we are not God, and, in many respects, we are unworthy to behold His presence.  On the other hand, however, the Evil One certainly does all he can to try to prevent us from approaching the Lord.  

The Evil One will use our past experiences, behaviors, and sins to sow lies.  And, because he is a really good liar, those lies feel very believable.  I often ask people if they hear a voice that says things to us like, “You suck”; “you’re no good”; “look what you did”; “you’re dirty”; “your past is so bad it will always dictate your future”; “nobody understands you”; and the list goes on and on. This voice uses the accusatory you to tell lies about ourselves, and because the Evil One is a good liar, we end up believing those lies.  These false beliefs prevent us from approaching the God who can heal us.    

After Peter asks the Lord to depart from him and confesses his sinfulness, the Lord says, “Do not be afraid.”  As we pray into the Gospel today and through the rest of the week, let us not be afraid to put our nets out into the depths of our hearts.  Let us not be afraid to stand before the Lord, in all our sinfulness and unworthiness, because the Lord wants to speak Truth to the lies.  As Pope St. John Paul II said in a homily on World Youth Day in July of 2002, “We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.”

Know of my prayers for you all!  

Fr. Ryan