St. Mark Parish Council & Staff Retreat

This weekend the St. Mark Parish Council and Staff will be on retreat.  Please pray for us -- and if you have any prayer requests you can leave a comment below and I'll make sure to pray for them this weekend.

Due to the retreat (and Fairfax County Public School's four day weekend) there will be no RE classes January 29, 30, and 31.  Classes resume February 5, 6, and 7.

Car Conversation: On Your Way to Mass

Kids in the car!

It can be a struggle to get in the car, but once you're there you have a great opportunity to engage your children in preparing for Mass.  Here are a few ideas:

• If possible, you can have someone in your car read through the Gospel.  Talk about the Gospel for the few minutes you have.  Your kids will be more focused during the Gospel after having talked it through.
• Only one driving?  When we're at Mass, we have a chance to bring in all that happened during the week and pray through the events and circumstances of our lives.  Have everyone answer and share one of each the following:
• What are you thankful for this week?
• What do you need need forgiveness for this week?
• What sacrifices have you made this week?
• What do you need to pray for for this upcoming week?
• Need some quiet time?  Ask everyone to spend a few moments conversing with God (AKA praying).  Sometimes when we're running close to the start of Mass, this quiet time is important to help us transition  into Mass.

What sorts of conversations do you have in the car with your children before Mass?  Is it pure chaos?  Leave a comment below and share.

Image Credit: Thomas Widmann on flickr

St. Francis de Sales - A Patron Saint for Today

St. Francis de Sales

The Busy Saint

Today, January 24, is the feast day of St. Francis de Sales, one of the patron saints of catechists, teachers and all who provide religious instruction -- including parents.  When you read bits and pieces about his life, you can understand why he is a patron of these causes.  For example, his words to a close friend (St. Jane de Chantal) ring true to parents and all others who have days overflowing with scheduled time: "So many have come to me that I might serve them, leaving me no time to think of myself. However, I assure you that I do feel deep-down- within-me, God be praised. For the truth is that this kind of work is infinitely profitable to me."

St. Francis lived in a much different time, when inboxes were physical and not a folder in your email directory.  He wrote that he once had over 50 letters to respond to by hand.  And it is said that he overworked himself, spreading himself so thin in his duties as a pastor that he was often sick.  In moments when we feel similar, send up a quick prayer, asking St. Francis for perseverance.

Three-years, No Results
Being with God, even in the midst of an incredible amount of tasks, provided St. Francis with the solid foundation for when he faced one of his life's many trials.  Around the time of the Protestant Reformation, he set out on a three-year door-to-door attempt at converting the Swiss to Catholicism (from a profile on St. Francis de Sales):

Then Francis had a bad idea -- at least that's what everyone else thought. This was during the time of the Protestant reformation and just over the mountains from where Francis lived was Switzerland -- Calvinist territory. Francis decided that he should lead an expedition to convert the 60,000 Calvinists back to Catholicism. But by the time he left his expedition consisted of himself and his cousin. His father refused to give him any aid for this crazy plan and the diocese was too poor to support him. 

For three years, he trudged through the countryside, had doors slammed in his face and rocks thrown at him. In the bitter winters, his feet froze so badly they bled as he tramped through the snow. He slept in haylofts if he could, but once he slept in a tree to avoid wolves. He tied himself to a branch to keep from falling out and was so frozen the next morning he had to be cut down. And after three years, his cousin had left him alone and he had not made one convert.

St. Francis later changed up his approach and found more success in his conversion attempts -- he won people's hearts ahead of their minds.  He reminds us that it's never too late to try something new and outside our comfort zone.

Everyone Can Be Holy
Finally, St. Francis was a spirituality trailblazer, insisting that everyone, regardless of vocation, can grow in holiness, that is, in the likeness of God: "All of us can attain to Christian virtue and holiness, no matter in what condition of life we live and no matter what our life work may be."  He set about helping lay people explore this idea by offering spiritual direction via letter to many, many individuals.  Among the direction, he would recommend individuals offer their days to God through this prayer:

My God, I give you this day. I offer you, now, all of the good that I shall do and I promise to accept, for love of you, all of the difficulty that I shall meet. Help me to conduct myself during this day in a manner pleasing to you. Amen.

May St. Francis de Sales be a patron and a guide for all those who provide religious instruction -- parents, pastors, catechists, teachers, and family members.

Image Credit: Lawrence OP on flickr

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Tonight we have our meeting with Confirmation Candidates and parents, which we will begin with this prayer to the Holy Spirit attributed to St. Augustine.  It's a great prayer for beginnings and in moments of need:

The Holy Spirit from St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican

Breathe in us, O Holy Spirit, that our thoughts may be holy.
Act in us, O Holy Spirit, that our work too may be holy.
Draw our hearts, O Holy Spirit, that we may love but what is holy.
Strengthen us, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy.
Guard us then, O Holy Spirit, that we always may be holy.
Amen.

Do you have a favorite prayer?  Share it below.

Image Credit: hops_76 from flickr

St. Mark School Open House

You're invited to an open house for the ST. MARK Catholic School this Sunday, January 22 from 1-2:30PM.

Please join us to learn more about the ST. MARK Catholic School and all it has to offer for Preschool to 8th graders.  It's a perfect opportunity to ask questions, speak with teachers and pick up an application for the 2012-2013 school year.

See this flyer (PDF) for more information.

MLK Day

In honor of the late Dr. King and in (late) celebration of National Vocation Awareness Week, here's a quote from the late Martin Luther King Jr. on vocation, taken from "What Is Your Life's Blueprint?" a talk given by Dr. King.

If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can't be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.

Back to Counting Time

Time keeps on slippin'....into the future

With the celebration of Jesus' Baptism on Monday, the Church closed out her Christmas season with a bang (really, with a trickle of water).  Gone from St. Mark are the Christmas decorations.  No more creche, no more star behind the altar, no more wreaths, and no more "Merry Christmas."  Our liturgical celebrate of Christmas is over until December 2012, so now what?

Not Plain...
Now we return to what is called "ordinary time."  That phrase sounds very plain and, well, ordinary.  Our liturgical time is "ordinary" right now because we're neither feasting (Christmas and Easter) nor fasting (Lent); we're neither celebrating (solemnities and feast days) nor preparing (Advent).  Our time is "ordinary" because the Church counts all the days between these special moments and numbers them, places them in a certain order with readings that thematic but not necessarily tied down to a certain celebration or moment.  And just like life, we spend most of the liturgical year neither feasting nor fasting; neither celebrating nor preparing.

...But Still Kept
So what can we do to make ordinary time special?  How can we mark this ordered time?  Our Sunday Visitor gives us six ways to living in ordinary time.  You could try one of those six, or you can come up with your own way to focus your spiritual energy during this liturgical season.

What's your favorite way to mark ordinary time?  Or have you never thought about it?  How can your family grow in faith from here until Lent begins on February 22?


Image: Leo Reynolds (flickr)

Snow! Do we have RE?

On days like today when it's snowing and we have RE classes at St. Mark, it's important for you to know our bad weather policy:

The Religious Education program follows the lead of Fairfax County Schools.

• If Fairfax County declares a “snow day,” closes schools early, or cancels afternoon and evening activities, RE classes are automatically cancelled for that day/time period. 
• If school activities are called off for the weekend, Sunday classes will not be held. 
• For cancellation announcements, please check the St. Mark RE Twitter or call 703-938-1948.
• Because the Fairfax County school situation receives such wide-spread coverage on the local news media, do not expect notification of the cancellation of a class.  If possible an email will be sent out in the event of a cancellation.

Jesus' Big Question

What are you looking for?

Today's Gospel presents us with one of Jesus' biggest questions: "What are you looking for?"  If you're like those first disciples, you don't know how to answer, but instead switch the subject.  The disciples choose a topic that at first glance is a step up from asking about the weather; they ask where Jesus' is staying.  Christ responds "Come, and you will see."

We're presented with the opportunity to answer Jesus' big question.  What are you looking for?  And have you found it?  That reminds me of a song...


Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net