Notre Dame Roman Catholic Parish

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A Word from Father Ed…

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Tomorrow (Monday) David Pipp, our new ministry assistant for evangelization and faith formation, begins his ministry with us. We welcome him.

In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus commanded the apostles to “go...and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them…, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt. 28:19-20). This is the charge entrusted to the church; this is the charge the church entrusts to me as your pastor; this is the charge because of which I have hired David. This charge we call evangelization.

What is evangelization? Here is how Blessed Pope Paul VI described evangelization: “[t]o proclaim with authority the Word of God, to assemble the sacred People of God, to feed this People with the signs of the action of Christ which are the sacraments; to set this People on the road to salvation, to maintain it in that unity of which we are, at different levels, active and living instruments, and unceasingly to keep this community gathered around Christ, faithful to its deepest vocation” (Evangelii nuntiandi, 68). In other words, evangelization is telling others by word and example about Christ. Evangelization is loving another so much that the only thing you want for them is Christ. Moreover it is not evangelization to say to another simply, “Jesus loves you.” Evangelization, instead, is to say, “In the name of Jesus, I love you.”

The “handmaid” of evangelization is faith formation. A disciple never ceases to learn the discipline of the master. We have been wrongly seduced into believing that all Jesus requires of his disciples is that they be baptized. Wrong. Jesus requires of his disciples that they continually and for life seek to learn about him, to love him more and more, to live his life, and to proclaim him to others. That is what faith formation—and David’s ministry—is all about: teaching the way of Jesus to those called to baptism and to the church and to those baptized and in the church. Baptism (or confirmation or simply going to Mass on Sunday) is not the end, the fulfillment of Christian discipleship. Because we are baptized, confirmed, and eat of the word and partake of the body and blood of Jesus we seek, as St. Paul himself said, that it is no longer we you live but Christ who lives in us. “Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20; emphasis added). This is what faith formation is all about and what David is joining us to help us do: to live by faith in the Son of God who has loved us and given himself up for us.

Next weekend our parish celebrates the 60th anniversary of its founding. The weekend of August 19/20 we will register families for the new year of faith formation and catechism classes. The weekend of September 16/17 we are hosting a ministry and volunteer fair. Mark your calendars. The pastoral year is shaping up to be an exciting and faith-filled year.

Father Ed

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Don't forget to pick up some grocery gift cards for the leading grocery stores. They make great gifts too. You can purchase yours after all the Masses.

*The current bulletin can be found under the "Weekly Bulletins" menu link above, plus notice all our advertisers on the back that help support the bulletin.