Weekly insight and thoughts from Fr. Damian Zuerlein
Pastor’s Letter 1.30.22
The fourth component of the Community is story-telling. No matter what the particular dimension of discipleship may be up for discussion that particular month, they all involve a dimension of story-telling. People in the Communities all come from different backgrounds with unique histories. It is in the sharing of their own story of attempting to follow Jesus that every member of the Community discovers a greater depth of faith. By having to articulate your own faith story, you take ownership for your story and begin to discover that it is not difficult to witness to the powerful presence of Jesus in your life with others.
Pastor’s Letter 1.23.22
Dear Friends, Have you ever noticed how often in the scriptures that Jesus meets with his disciples? It took up a lot of Jesus’ time. Apparently, Jesus did not think it was a waste of time, but that it was important. We will be doing a study of the Acts of the...
Pastor’s Letter 1.16.22
Dear Friends, One of the truths about our country is that we are basically a nation made up of immigrants. We are proud of that reality. Most people are also proud of their heritage and desire to help the family members and country they left behind. I remember in our...
Pastor’s Letter 1.9.22
Dear Friends, After my letter explaining the octave of Christmas, several people asked about the origin of the idea that there are 12 days to Christmas. In the traditional Christmas calendar, January 6th is Epiphany or Theophany. The 6th of January would be the 12th...
Pastor’s Letter 1.2.22
Dear Friends, If all has gone well, then I am on retreat this week. Priests are required to take a retreat every year and 2021 had slipped by me without a retreat – so I am sneaking it in under the wire. I will be back soon. As a letter, I am giving you a little story...
Pastor’s Letter 1.26.21
Merry Christmas!!! The Church thinks this is such a special feast that one day is not sufficient. Christmas is not a day, Christmas has an “octave”. An octave has a unique meaning in music and math. Pythagoras, the ancient Greek mathematician, discovered that notes...
Pastor’s Letter 12.19.21
Dear Friends, We have arrived at our last week of Advent. Just a bit more time to prepare. If you have been doing any shopping out and about, then you have been hearing the melodies of Christmas carols being played ahead of Christmas. If we focused on the words of the...
Pastor’s Letter 12.12.21
Dear Friends, Did you hear the amazing words in today’s first reading? It is the last line of a beautiful reading from the prophet Zephaniah: “The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior; he will rejoice...
Pastor’s Letter 12.5.21
Dear Friends, December 6th is the feast of St. Nicholas. Do you know his story? Saint Nicholas lived between 260 and 343, born in Patara, a Lycian port town, an area that is part of present-day Turkey. He lost both of his parents as a young man and reportedly used his...
Pastor’s Letter 11.28.21
Dear Friends, I am ending our reading about the synod today – at least for now – after all, Advent has begun. However, before we leave the synod preparation materials, Pope Francis has several questions for you to be thinking about. Here he introduces the questions:...
Pastor’s Letter 11.21.21
Dear Friends, We continue our reflections and readings about the two-year Synod process that was begun last month. What follows are further reflections from the preparation documents to help us understand what the Synod is hoping for. Those of you who follow Church...
Pastor’s Letter 11.14.21
Dear Friends, Some of you may be asking, why is Pope Francis calling a Synod about the church as a whole? Certainly, Pope Francis has called Synods to discuss families or young people or the challenges in South America, but why do we need one for the whole Church to...