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Twenty-Fourth Sunday of the Year
17 September 2006
Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and forever!
Dear Friends in Christ,
Imagine if a doctor had to practice the medical arts knowing about biology and chemistry only what he knew in the 8th grade. Imagine if any adult had to live his or her life with only the knowledge and experience we had at age 14. Such a thing is absurd on its face, and yet that is precisely the condition most adult Catholics are in with regard to Christian faith and life: religious education and serious study of the Gospel ended with our last Confirmation class, which for the vast majority of us was in middle school. This is a recipe for spiritual mediocrity of every sort, and that is something none of us should ever be content with. But what is to be done?
Part of the solution is for our high school students to stay involved in Christian fellowship, study, prayer, and service after receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation, and the way we do that at St. Mary’s is through our High School Youth Group which meets every Sunday evening from 6 to 8:00 pm. For the past ten years, our high school group has had the very able and dedicated leadership of Mr. Jimmy Dias, to whom we are indebted for his most generous service, and beginning with the meeting this evening, our high school group will be led by Mr. Chris Stansberry, an active St. Mary’s parishioner who sings in the adult choir and participates in the Pillars of Christ when he isn’t at home with his wife and their six children or at work in engineering sales. I am deeply grateful to Chris for his willingness to help form our high school students through youth ministry at St. Mary’s, and he will be calling upon the assistance of parents and numerous volunteers to build an already strong program into an ever more effective school of the Lord’s service.
Every high school student at St. Mary’s is invited to participate in our Sunday night fellowship to deepen your knowledge of and love for the Lord Jesus through fun, food, study, prayer, and simply walking together as companions in the Way of the Cross. These two hours each week are designed to help you respond to the call of the Lord Jesus which you received at your Baptism to follow Him as a faithful disciple and to lead others to Him by your way of life, and I ask every high school student in the parish to join us for this time of Christian formation. Inside this bulletin you’ll find a detailed schedule for tonight’s meeting, and you are most welcome to join us for supper at 6 pm this evening.
Father Newman