Diocese of Ogdensburg E-Notes
Click the link above for a listing of offerings from the Diocese of Ogdensburg and parishes around the diocese.

Please join us for First Friday Devotions. On the first Friday of every month, there will be Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Adoration at Sacred Heart Church from  2 pm to 6 p.m.  Priests will be available for Confessions.

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary

The First Saturday of the Month Rosary Devotion is a beautiful way to pay homage to the Mother of God. Please join us in honoring Mary by praying the Rosary on first Saturdays of each month  at 3:15 pm at Sacred Heart Church.

All are welcome!

   This weekend, the predominant theme in our Scriptures can be summarized by one word:  FAITH.  It’s a word that is used often - written and spoken about.  But I’m not so sure we really appreciate its meaning, and its application in life today.  Including life in the Church. 

   For starters, let’s just say, faith here is something far deeper than believing in some principles or doctrines.  Faith certainly includes that, but that’s the essence of it.  Mere intellectual assent to some propositions and doctrines is not what faith is all about.  Faith, at its depth, at its weightiest and most substantial meaning, is a word that describes a relationship.  It is complete trust in someone - trust that actually is an “entrustment” - and entrustment of one’s life, one’s fortune, one’s future, one’s very self.  Faith describes a relationship of trust and entrustment that can really begin to sound like . . . marriage, even.  Actually, let’s use the biblical language, and call it a covenant.  Faith is the bond and the reality which makes a covenant possible.  And faith is most powerfully evident and strengthened when it is . . . TESTED. 

   Let me say it again - faith is most powerfully evident, and strengthened when it is tested.  I know, I know - “why does it have to be that way?!”  It just is, though.  Think of the body - who wouldn’t want well-toned, well-defined muscles?  Well, how do we get that, typically?  By working out - by “testing” the muscles to the point of fatigue and perhaps exhaustion.  It is not without some pain that we get stronger muscles.   So it is, it seems, with our faith - it’s only through the tests and trials of life that faith REALLY becomes evident and stronger.  And that brings us to the first reading today. 

   Habakkuk was a prophet in southern Israel, around Jerusalem, within ten years before the utter collapse of the Kingdom and destruction of its temple.  This was a devastating event that’s hard for us to fully appreciate - about 500 or so years before the coming of Christ, the Babylonian empire conquers Judah, the southern part of the Kingdom which includes Jerusalem.  They destroyed the beautiful temple built by Solomon, and carted off the treasure and enslaved the people.  It was like the end of the world for the Israelites, and Habakkuk saw this calamity as imminent.  The hammer was about to drop.  He, the prophet, complains to God - to paraphrase, “God, why do you let injustice and evil persist?  Why do you allow such awful things to come our way?”

   Habakkuk speaks as one who can be real with God, who has a relationship with God.  And God’s answer comes to him:  “The rash one has no integrity; but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.”  St. Paul would, centuries later, pick up on this theme: By faith, one has life - through a trusting relationship with God, one can endure the awful things that happen in life and win through to the life God has prepared for those who love him. It’s a faith that is tested, for sure, faith that is pushed to its limits, which is found to be life-giving and enduring.  
And it is faith the size of a mustard seed, Our Lord says, which is capable of incredible things.  But that mustard seed faith will surely be tested.  Jesus warned them of that too.  

   So, when we speak of a loving relationship with God, and a relationship of faith, of complete entrustment of ourselves to God and his promises, we need to remember that it’s always going to be a faith that is tested.  Sometimes, rather severely.  And that, like Habakkuk, we might see awful things happening that can shake our faith, and perhaps have us asking God, “why?  how could you let this happen, Lord?!”

   Well, the matters that shook the faith of Habakkuk and others of his day are not identical to ours - but we do have things that can shake one’s faith just the same.  I’m sure most of you are aware of the horrific sexual abuse crisis that has haunted our Church over the past few decades, and has really been awful in just the past year.  I grieve over the wicked ways that priests, and even bishops, have abused children, seminarians, and other vulnerable people. I think we all grieve that.  And I know many of us feel, understandably, demoralized, embarrassed, and defeated.

   Many of us are wondering, what should we do? What can we do?  As individuals, as a parish, and as the Body of Christ, the Church - indeed, what should we do to bring about reform and renewal? With these scandals and questions in mind, we have decided to share with you a new book by Bishop Robert Barron. Bishop Barron is a bishop in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and he’s the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. His book is titled Letter to a Suffering Church: A Bishop Speaks on the Sexual Abuse Crisis. We’ve ordered a copy of the book for every family that we see at Mass each weekend (and then some).  I think you’ll find it helpful and uplifting. It’s not dry, abstract, or something for academics. It’s a true cry from the heart. Bishop Barron provides clear insight on the crisis, advice on why we should stick around in the Church, clinging to Christ and His promises (exercising our sorely tested faith), while fighting on behalf of the victims.  He offers some good advice also on where we go from here, at this point in the history of the Church.  

   I hope you will read it.  Maybe even read it twice, slowly and attentively. Then after finishing the book, I encourage you to pass it on to a friend or family member who could use it, to anyone struggling with the Church during this crisis.

   We also have decided to read through this book together, as a parish, one chapter per week over the next five weeks. To help with that, Bishop Barron and Word on Fire Ministries have created a short video series to guide us along. With this video series, you’ll receive one short email or text message per week, over the next five weeks—so just five total. Each message corresponds to one of the five chapters in the book, and each message will contain a short video reflection by Bishop Barron, followed by a few discussion questions we can reflect on together as a parish, using our Flocknote system. It’s a chance for you to dialogue with fellow parishioners, and also ask questions of and interact with me about this important topic.  Those messages will go out to those who are enrolled in the “Weekly Word” sub-group in Flocknote.  If you’re already in our parish Flocknote system, you’ll want to go on there with your login and password to make sure you have selected “Weekly Word” as one of your groups.  If you’re not enrolled in Flocknote for St. Peter’s Parish, you can follow the directions that we have in the bulletin, or go to massenacatholics.com and follow the instructions we have there on the parish website.  If you’re still having trouble with that, just give us a call at the parish office and we’ll help you get plugged in.  

   Finally, there will also be a chance to come together for an evening or morning of reflection later in the month - Friday October 25th and Saturday the 26th, so that we can have an opportunity to reflect on and discuss the matter together.  So please make sure to take a copy of the book as you leave Mass today, read it, and join me in prayerful reflection on it, as we navigate these stormy waters. 

   May God bless us all, as we wrestle with the things that continue to test our faith - and may we be given every grace to endure the trials of our day, and know that even when we are unfaithful - even when shepherds entrusted with the care of the flock are unfaithful - God will always remain faithful.  It is upon God and His promises that we rely, and it is to God that we cry, and entrust ourselves anew (please, join me in this prayer in the silence of your heart):  “Lord, you are ever faithful and ever true.  Grant us the grace of a deeper faith today, that will endure every trial, and have us holding to you and your promises ever more firmly even now, and until the dawn of eternity.  In Jesus’ Holy Name, Amen.”

~ Fr. Mark