Dear parishioners,

This past week, the friars took the opportunity to have a short retreat at the Franciscan Center. It was a time for the four of us to come together and talk about our fraternal and ministerial life here at Sacred Heart. It was a time to reflect and to get away, even though it was only a few miles up the road. Monday morning, we celebrated the Eucharist with the
Allegany Franciscan Sisters. It is always great when we can get together with other Franciscan groups.

We started off the ministerial part of the day with this prayer.

Loving Father, help us to celebrate and serve the people of many races, languages, and ways of life You have gathered to Yourself to form Sacred Heart Parish.

May we be signs of your welcome as we greet people as they gather.

May we encourage them to pray always as contemplative friars in ministry.

May we bless their generosity by being generous ourselves.

May we love them through loyal service, a faith that is fearless, compassion, and mercy.

May we share their joys and their hopes, their griefs and their anguish, their laughter and their tears.

Together as friar servants to the People of God, recognizing that we are all united in Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit, may we journey towards Your kingdom each in our own way, proclaiming Christ’s message of salvation, using words only if we must.

In one of our discussions on the retreat, the friars and I focused on Pope Francis’ Instructional on “The pastoral conversion of the Parish community in the service of the evangelizing mission of the Church.” In this document, dated to just under two years ago, in July 2020, the pope highlights a struggle many parishes face when making determinations for the level of services or sacraments that can be provided to potential or current parishioners. His premise is largely fueled by the impasse of needing to respect parish boundaries vs. destination parishes, and how the number of registered parishioners vs. unregistered can impact a parish. After a few minutes of healthy discourse, one friar said, “Are they baptized? If so, we are called to serve them!” We all readily agreed to that summary. In our discussion, we were pointing out the many hurdles people are required to jump over, and how we can make it easier for people to live out their faith within our own parish. The image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was brought up, with His Arms and Heart being open to all people. It is a wonderful and fitting image for our parish.

We had many productive conversations over the two days we spent at the Franciscan Center, and I feel we accomplished a lot of reorganization and planning. We had the opportunity to talk about our fraternal life together, our prayers, our shared time, and our commitment to each other as brothers. We also had the time to talk about our lives with Sacred Heart. We discussed our parish’s various ministries and with the addition of Fr. Steve to our group, we made new assignments on which friars will be involved with each particular ministry, and how best to help them. I and all the friars are always willing to help out with any of the ministries whenever needed. We also discussed how we can best serve the parishioners here at Sacred Heart. We will bring the conclusions from those conversations to the staff for their input in the coming days.

The days weren’t all work. After all, this was meant to be a retreat. We did get to have a meal at a few different restaurants, and ended the evenings with a card game. Fr. Steve gave us the instructions as we played. I remembered back to a time when both Fr. Steve and I were both working together in Raleigh, N.C., and he ran the card games there as
well. What I remember most, however, is that I didn’t win either time. I wonder then about the common denominator. The most important things about the retreat are that the friars
enjoyed their time together, and we all feel recharged.

Peace and all good,
Fr. Mike

Dear parishioners,

The Catholic Church has a history of social teaching that goes back centuries and provides a compelling challenge for living responsibly and building a just society. Modern Catholic Social Teaching, rooted in Scripture and articulated through a tradition of written documents, has evolved over time in response to the challenges of the day.

It is said that Catholic social teaching originated in 1891 with the encyclical letter “Rerum Novarum.” Since then, a wealth of teaching continues to bring to life the Scriptures and shape the Church’s response to our modern world. It is from the Catholic social teaching documents the encyclicals we get theses seven core principles.

The first is dignity; that God created every human person in his image and likeness. This gift we share as fellow human beings. We are all loved by God. Every one of us is unique and beautiful and God is present in each one of us human beings, regardless of religion, culture, nationality, orientation of economic standing.

The second is solidarity. Solidarity arises when we remember that we are our brother’s and sister’s keeper. Solidarity happens when we stand with those living in poverty. In our interconnectedness, we are invited to build relationships—to understand what life is like for others who are different from us.

The third principle is community and participation. We are encouraged to stand side by side with others, especially those living in poverty. We should help whenever and however we can, thinking both about our local and global neighbors.

The fourth principle is one of preference, in option for the poor. Jesus’ words come alive when He says “you will always have the poor among you.” This principle is a moral test of how our most vulnerable members are faring. Our tradition instructs us to put the needs of poor and vulnerable people first. This option reminds us of God’s love for the poorest and most vulnerable people. God is love, and His love is universal. He does not side with oppressors, but loves the humble.

Our next principle is Peace. The Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met. Today, our world is still in need of peace. In the Ukraine, as an example, thousands have died following the Russian invasion. The conflict has destroyed tens of thousands of homes and have displaced millions of residents of the Ukraine. We pray peace be restored.

We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of the principle of creation. Pope Francis has invited everyone on earth to consider how our actions and behaviors actions are the earth and the poorest among us.

Finally, Catholic social teaching has long upheld the dignity of work. The well-being of the human person should always come before the pursuit of profit.  The worker should always have a just wage, spend time with their family and rest. Everyone should be given a chance to work and participate.

John 13:35 is one of my favorites. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love another.” I believe this sums up Catholic social teaching in a nutshell.

Peace and all good,
Friar Henry