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Inside This Issue: 2 Prayer: Come to Know the Lord 3
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Start 2022 with a Clean Spiritual Slate The Culture of Life Ministry: Living out an Essential Mission, Upholding the Sanctity of Life Understanding the Role of Sacramentals in Our Faith Meet Sharon Gerhart: Embracing Faith and Service, Fostering a Sense of Belonging
JAN/FEB 2022
Prayer Warriors:
Faithfully Reaching out to God for Those in Need
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pencil can’t write without a person controlling it. Prayer Warrior Ministry Leader Marguerite Smith uses this as an analogy for prayer — the Prayer Warriors are the pencil, and God is the writer. “When someone asks us for prayers, we can’t change their situation,” she says. “We can comfort them. Ultimately, they At St. Patrick’s, there is a dedicated have to give it to faith.” group of 97 Prayer Warriors. Parishioners email requests to Marguerite, and she quickly emails them out to the nearly 100 Prayer Warriors. The person requesting prayers doesn’t need to be a member at St. Patrick’s or Catholic. Prayers Warriors are available for anyone in need. Marguerite is so thankful to everyone who is a part of this ministry. It is truly important to her to offer a way for people to request prayers. There are so many needs, and she knows that God truly listens to their prayers. “This is a very dedicated group,” she says. “They are there for people — to pray for them and lift up those in need.” Although this group doesn’t meet in person, many members know one
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Prayer: COME TO KNOW THE LORD
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e make constant reference to the “three Ts” of stewardship, recognizing that to truly live as a stewardship people, we must give God the first fruits of our time, talent, and treasure. It is easy for us to see the concrete reality of the latter two. If we are to give God our talents, we must first recognize with what talents He has blessed us, and then use those talents for His greater glory. And as we continue our stewardship path, we know very well that our money is something concrete. When we recognize it as a gift from God, we know that we are to give a certain amount back to Him. It is easy for many of us to understand what it means to give God our talent and our treasure. But what does it mean to give God a portion of our time? This idea is much harder to grasp, and yet giving to God the first fruits of our time is just as important as the other two. And if we understand this idea and implement it properly, our stewardship of time will serve as the very foundation from which our stewardship of talent and treasure bear fruit. When we talk about stewardship of time, we are referring to prayer time. Prayer is of the utmost importance in a disciple’s life, and in the Diocese of Wichita’s The Pillars of Parish Stewardship, it is also one of the four pillars of stewardship. Does this mean that in order to be true disciples, we should say the Our Father three times a day or pray a daily Rosary? Not particularly. Of course, we must not discount the merits of prayer, as the Church in her wondrous wisdom has given us certain prayers to help guide our lives. However, the disciple’s deep life of prayer involves even more. St. John Chrysostom explains, “You should not think of prayer as being a matter of words. It is a desire for God, an indescribable devotion … the gift of God’s grace” (Hom 6). That is, if we look at prayer as a mere regimen that we must follow every day, then we do not see to the heart of it. The reality is that prayer will take on different forms for every one of us. One person may
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have a deep devotion to the Rosary, and in praying it, he is closely united to the Lord. Another person might feel deeply connected to Him through constant conversation – in the car on the way to work, before bed at night, or at other hours throughout the day. Meanwhile, for another person, a daily or weekly hour of silence before the Lord in Eucharistic Adoration is the best place for him to offer the Lord his heart. No matter how we choose to pray, we must get to the root of it all. If we are to truly give God our time, it must be a gift of ourselves. It must come from the heart and not take the form of mere word repetition. If we offer an Our Father without meditating on the words, it can simply become recitation. The point of prayer is to get to know the Lord. If we are committed to living as His disciples, we must be on personal terms with Him. The first disciples didn’t know what it meant to pray the Rosary. And until the Lord taught them the Our Father, they couldn’t pray that either. But they were definitely true stewards of their time. They walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, and ate meals with Him. He was their best friend, and the more they got to know Him, the more they longed to serve Him. The same holds true for us today. We can walk with Him, talk with Him and sit with Him, just as they did. And He wants us to do this, too. St. John Chrysostom proclaims, there is nothing more worthwhile: “For prayer unites us to God as His companions” (Hom 6). How can we serve Him if we don’t know Him? If we truly desire to be a servant people, we must talk to Him whom we wish to serve. We must get to know Him. Then, most assuredly, we will fall in love with Him. We will undoubtedly desire nothing more than to serve Him. Recognize Jesus as your best friend and spend time with Him as such. He is the Lord, the Creator of the Universe, without whom we would cease to exist. Bring Him your cares and concerns, your excitement, your worry, your fears and your frustrations, and allow Him to comfort you. He is there, and He wants to speak with you.
A L e t t e r F ro m F at h e r
Start 2022 with a Clean Spiritual Slate Dear Family,
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any of us were taught in school that the month of January gets its name from Janus, the ancient Roman god of doors and gates. His image was always carved or painted with two faces, one looking forward and the other backward. This reflected, of course, that you can go either out a door or in through one. From this very specific function, his role was generalized to include all beginnings and new endeavors. Because of Janus’ place in the Roman pantheon, it seemed natural to the Romans to name the first month of the civil year after him. (The Church year began back with the First Sunday of Advent, you’ll remember.) And although we no longer worship the pagan gods of the ancient Romans, the name has stuck through the centuries. But we’re not immune to the human instinct that moved the Romans to name the first month after Janus. His double countenance, facing forward and backward, reflects how we approach the coming of each new year. The last week of the old year finds the newspapers and TV programs giving a glance back at the past year (“the 10 best, or worst, movies of…” and such) along with predictions of what the new year will bring. My personal favorite is always “the 10 worst predictions” for the year just ending. Just like the secular world does — Janus-like — we both look back at our own successes and failures, happy events, and sad ones, during the year just ending, and forward to the new year as we prepare our resolutions. When we reflect back on the blessings we’ve received, our hearts should be filled with gratitude — and blessings there have been, no matter how difficult the year has been. But for most of us,
there have been failures and failings, too. That calls for repentance, and perhaps a trip to the confessional — but God, who makes “all things new” (Rv 21:5), will then give us a clean spiritual slate with which we may begin the new year. I’d also like to challenge you to include your grateful response to God as you make your resolutions for the new year. You don’t have to wait until you fill out a commitment card to decide this is the year when you’re actually going to attend Mass once a week in addition to Sunday (or begin worshiping every Sunday if you haven’t been doing so) or to pray the Rosary every week or to begin regular prayers with your family. Include in your resolutions how you are going to get involved in some ministry in the parish or some service to the community, and then do so. Decide to become more faithful in your financial stewardship if your treasure commitment is less than it should be. Look forward to the new year and bring Christ and His Church to the center of your resolutions. Then see what a good year it will be, with God at the center! Have a happy, and holy, New Year. Your Father in Christ,
Fr. Estrella Pastor
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T H E C U LT U R E O T
Living out an Essential Mission,
he Catechism teaches us that it is a moral obligation to defend and uphold the dignity of the human person. But what does that look like? We see and hear much about the abortion debate and that side of the pro-life movement, but what about after the child is born? The Culture of Life Ministry at St. Patrick’s has a heart and a mission to promote and educate others on what it means to uphold the dignity of the human person, from conception to natural death. Parishioner and active member of the Culture of Life Ministry, Ruth Peterson shares about their history and mission. “St. Patrick’s has had a pro-life presence for several decades,” Ruth says. “Participation has ebbed and flowed over the years but in 2017, Colleen Deneen revitalized this ministry. Along with the events that we take part in, we really try to do a lot of educational things to inform the community about the issues that we are facing. We call them to action on signing petitions, writing to our elected officials and we keep people informed on legislative bills pertaining to these topics.” The ministry has put together information fairs where parishioners can come and learn about many different pro-life issues. Ruth reflects on what brought her to be
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involved in this ministry. “I graduated from college in the late ‘70s and, in retrospect, I can see that I was fairly well indoctrinated in the pro-choice point of view,” she says. “I never really questioned that point of view until I met Pete, my husband-to-be. He was Catholic and of course, he strongly questioned the pro-choice stance. Once I became a part of his family and joined the Catholic Church, I was gently and lovingly led to understand and believe in the child’s right to life.” From there, her passion for defending life at all stages has grown and a key part of that is not only defending life but educating others on what the major issues are surrounding the Culture of Life movement. “We have a whole generation of people who don’t know that there are better solutions,” Ruth says. “The news quit talking about the pro-life side. There is a need for more effort on the part of Catholics and Christians to keep working towards this goal.” The Culture of Life Ministry promotes and hosts many events along with the education that they provide. One of their events centered on the right to life is Spiritual Adoption. Parishioners are invited to spiritually “adopt” an unborn baby and pray
F L I F E M I N I S T RY:
, Upholding the Sanctity of Life daily for them. This daily prayer takes place for nine months, the full length of a pregnancy. At the end of this nine months, they host a baby shower and donate the items to the LivingWell Medical Clinic, a local pregnancy resource clinic. Another current issue is that of suicide and physician-assisted suicide. On God’s Time, In God’s Care is a spiritual advocacy prayer program. Similar to spiritual adoption, parishioners are asked to pray for those who are despairing and planning on taking their own life or planning a physician-assisted suicide. They pray to give them hope and courage to face their struggles. “We are spiritually advocating for this person who is unknown to us — someone who is elderly, terminally ill, or depressed,” Ruth says. “They are considering suicide as a way to end their suffering. We pray for them daily for six months. If we listen to the teachings of the Church, we are going to be able to accept the challenges and sufferings that we experience. We can offer them up, or pray to St.
Joseph, the patron saint of a happy death.” The group participates and promotes the West Coast Walk for Life in San Francisco, the Life Chain events, and many more local, regional and statewide events. “We had a movie showing on Venerable Jerome Lejeune, the French physician who discovered the genetic cause of Down syndrome,” Ruth says. Venerable Jerome Lejeune is a great model of Catholic bioethics. He made this discovery and then spent the rest of his life defending the dignity and rights of the unborn. He vehemently opposed prenatal genetic diagnosis which is then followed by abortion of the unborn children with chromosomal defects. The Culture of Life Ministry is active in making sure that others understand that the pro-life stance of the church extends far beyond opposing abortion. There are many issues that we face in the defense of the dignity of human life. Be sure to refer to the bulletin for announcements on upcoming events.
The Culture of Life Ministry meets the first Monday of the month at 6 p.m. in the parish hall. For more information on getting involved, please contact the parish office. To keep up with events and current news, visit the website at www.stpatrickgrassvalley.org/news/culture-of-life.
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Understanding the Role of Sacramentals in Our Faith
ost Catholics are familiar with the idea of sacraments in the Church, of which there are seven. Sacraments are the foundation of the spiritual life for an individual and the Church. Sacraments are sources of grace — God’s very presence in our lives and unmerited favor from God. They are signs of God’s love, and these signs make present what they signify. Although a person benefits — receives the gift of grace — from the sacraments regardless of whether he or she is well disposed to them, one must cooperate with what the Spirit is doing in the sacrament to receive its full benefit. Sacramentals are different. These are also sacred signs that can build holiness, but they do not work on their own. One must be aware and fully conscious of the sacred action. Sacramentals sanctify us to get the most benefit from the Sacraments (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1667). Sacramentals are given to us to make holy certain actions in life and life’s circumstances. There are many such sacred signs that are reminders to us of God. The sign of the cross is perhaps one of the most fundamental of these signs, and for Catholics, this invocation is done at the start of every sacred action and prayer. Holy water is a sacramental, as it reminds us of our Baptism. By dipping our fingers into holy water and making the sign of the cross, we are combining two foundational symbols of the Christian life and the Paschal Mystery — the passion, dying and rising of Christ — and bringing them to life in us. The exchange of peace in the Mass — and at other Catholic rites — is another example of a sacramental. By making some kind of meaningful sign of peace, we are giving the peace of Christ to another person. The chalice and other sacred vessels at Mass also are sacramentals, as they remind us of what they are to contain — the very Body and Blood of Christ. It might be helpful to organize the types of sacramentals into categories, as author Michael Pennock lists in This Is Our Faith: A Catholic Catechism for Adults: “Actions (blessings; genuflections; the sign of the cross; bowing one’s head at the name of Jesus;
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church processions); Objects (candles; holy water; statues and icons; holy pictures; blessed ashes; palms; rosaries; relics; incense; vestments; scapulars; church buildings; crosses; religious medals); Places (the Holy Land; Rome; Fatima; Lourdes; the National Shrine in Washington, D.C.; and other places of pilgrimage; chapels, retreat centers, and even Catholic cemeteries); Prayers (short prayers we say throughout the day; grace before and after meals; prayers at rising and going to bed; praying the rosary, praying a host of other traditional Catholic prayers and devotions); Sacred Time (liturgy; holy days; feasts of saints; your saint’s name day; special days of prayer; fasting and abstinence; retreats, etc.)” (This Is Our Faith: A Catholic Catechism for Adults, 176-177). “Sacramentals…prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it” (CCC 1670). In a word, sacramentals, through the prayer of the Church, bring us to holiness in Christ. All devotions of piety, including sacramentals, should point us toward the liturgy of the Church, a connection to a local parish community, and to the Eucharist (CCC 1675). The Church, through Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, has given us these sacred signs to lead us in holiness, and to better recognize an authentic Christian life. How many sacramentals can you recognize in your life? Probably more than you think.
MEET
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Sharon Gerhart:
Embracing Faith and Service, Fostering a Sense of Belonging
haron Gerhart knows that when you find the Members of the Ministry of Consolation act as ministry to which God is calling you, it’s more coordinators between a grieving family and all of than just a service project or another meeting to add the necessary contacts when planning a funeral — to your schedule. A parishioner for 12 years, Sharon the priest, the Director of Music, the Helping Hands has found that being involved in a meaningful Ministry, and the funeral home. ministry is truly what has strengthened her faith and “It’s being able to be there for the family,” Sharon given her a sense of belonging. says. “So many of them have no Today, Sharon serves with idea what to do, especially now the Ministry of Consolation, is an when generations haven’t stayed officer with the Catholic Ladies with the Church.” Relief Society, and is a lector and Ministering to the grieving Extraordinary Minister of Holy and helping to bury the dead Communion at Mass. However, brings Sharon close with the this wasn’t always the case Corporal and Spiritual Works of for Sharon. A transplant from Mercy required by our faith. North Dakota, Sharon found “Being closer to the Works of herself drifting away from the Mercy confirms my faith and the Catholic Church for many years. reason that we’re here,” Sharon About 12 years ago, Sharon had says. “Death is not an ending, slowly begun attending Mass but a beginning and the most Sharon Gerhart again at St. Patrick. She heard an important beginning.” announcement at Mass about a meeting of Catholics Serving through the parish has taught Sharon Come Home, so she decided to attend. Through that the true value of staying faithful to the Church and group, Sharon was encouraged to get more involved it has given her greater compassion for those she with the church. serves. Just as Sharon was once the one feeling like “That was a key for me, to be a part of parish life an outsider, not realizing that she needed so badly to instead of left out,” Sharon says. “There are many belong to the community, she now recognizes how that come to Mass and are not greeted, talked to, or she can be that loving hand to others. welcomed, and they don’t always stay.” “I believe that in our everyday lives, what we When Sharon started getting involved, someone share, what we talk about, and our behavior allows suggested that she talk to the coordinator of the other people to see how our faith is important in our Ministry of Consolation. lives and what it really means to us and it serves as an “The Holy Spirit was really working that day,” example to them,” Sharon says. “Sometimes, there are Sharon says. no words needed.”
“I believe that in our everyday lives, what we share, what we talk about, and our behavior allows other people to see how our faith is important in our lives and what it really means to us and it serves as an example to them. Sometimes, there are no words needed.” — S h ar o n G er h art
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St.
Patrick’s PARISH 235 Chapel Street Grass Valley, CA 95945 (530) 273-2347 stpatrickgrassvalley.org
Prayer Warriors
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another through Bible study and other ministries. And while they aren’t always together, they are always united in prayer. At times, the Prayers Warriors are very busy. Marguerite estimates there is about one prayer request per day. Members are encouraged to pray in whatever way they want — from praying a Rosary, to a special prayer they enjoy or spontaneous prayer. The most important thing is that they follow through on their commitment to pray for those who need it. ‘’We want people to know that when they ask, we pray for them,” Marguerite says. “We don’t just get the request and not follow through.” An essential part of this ministry is confidentiality. Members are expected to keep the request to himself or herself. “We want to maintain the dignity of those asking for help,” she says. “It’s not our job to talk about the request
with others. It is our job to pray.” Those making prayer requests may also do so anonymously. Marguerite knows that with all the Prayer Warriors praying, God hears the request. But that doesn’t mean the person will get exactly what they ask for. “Whatever the answer is, is God’s will,” she says. Ultimately, this is a ministry of hospitality. It’s a way for everyone — parishioners and non-parishioners alike — to know they are not alone. People will be there for them when they need it. This is our job as Christians. We are to be here for others. “We can help people know they are not invisible,” Marguerite says. “We offer up the prayers, and God does the rest.” Marguerite has seen a lot of positive responses from this ministry. She asks for people to keep her updated on their needs if they can — she emails out any updates she receives.
If you would like to submit a prayer request or become a Prayer Warrior, please contact Marguerite Smith at masmith0118@gmail.com or 530-432–8802.
MASS SCHEDULE Monday-Saturday: Daily Mass at 8:30 a.m. | Saturday Vigil Mass: 5 p.m. | Sunday Mass: 7:30 a.m., 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m. (Spanish)
