Coming This Fall – “Uncovering the Treasures of the Mass”
In the bulletin for this weekend, July 26th, I wrote a column about my passion for faith formation beyond children. I include some of my plans for this Fall. Here is the column:
The three things where I most find life in my ministry are celebrating Mass, hearing confessions, and teaching about our faith. The first two are at the heart of what every priest does. The third, teaching, is at the heart of my personal calling from God.
The Eucharist is the source and summit of our Catholic faith (Lumen Gentium, 11). As I preside at Mass, I have distinct moments of awareness of how God is working through me to feed you with the Body and Blood of Jesus.
I enjoy hearing confessions because I enjoy being an instrument of forgiveness and mercy.
Offering the presentations I do does not require me to be a priest but as a priest I am called to lead people to a deeper faith. I do this in homilies at Mass. It also happens through my website (www.renewaloffaith.org) and blog (https://blog.renewaloffaith.org/). I also do most of the Facebook posts on our parish Facebook page. To me, helping people grow in their knowledge and understanding of our faith is at the heart of what Jesus calls me to do.
Early in my priesthood, I did a couple of in person presentations and found grace in them. In 2013, I started doing four to six in person presentations a year and recording them to put on my website.
Like so many other things, the Coronavirus stopped us from having in person presentations but it does not stop us from sharing our faith with others. I’m writing more on my blog as well as more posts on the parish Facebook page. To keep the presentations going, I learned how to do the presentations online as webinars. My series on the Sacraments was completed as webinars. Then I led a presentation on the Trinity (www.renewaloffaith.org/trinity).
Now, I am working on new presentations for the Fall. We don’t know what Coronavirus precautions will be in place. So, we don’t know if these presentations will be in person or done as webinars online. That decision will probably come in late August. Whether in person or online webinars, I have scheduled the dates as September 23rd, October 14th, and November 18th at 6:30 p.m.
The topic of this series will be the Mass. We will look at why we do what we do at Mass to uncover the treasures of the Mass. The Mass is rich in symbolism and it is even richer in grace. Understanding the meaning of what we do at Mass can help us experience the fullness of the grace that we are offered in the Mass. We celebrate Mass to give praise to God. In return, God gives us his Word and the Eucharist. Mark your calendars now to open yourselves to the treasures of the Mass.
Peace,
Fr. Jeff
P.S. If you know someone who says they don’t come to Mass because they don’t get much out of it, this might be something to invite them to.