“Cultivating faith in one another takes a genuine interest in the people to whom we offer any spiritual message.”
Sowing Seeds, Tending Soil
January 27th, 2021
Today’s reading is the well-known parable of the sower and the seed. It is a reminder that whenever we share our faith with another person it is not enough simply to express our own experience. We have to take into account the other person’s experience. We have to concern ourselves with how the message we speak is actually heard. We always need to understand that the experience of the listener is as much a part of the message as the ideas of the speaker.
If it is truly important to us that our message be received clearly, we have to engage in an actual relationship with those to whom we would communicate. This is much more than simply “reading the room.” As we would look to being a people who can share faith with one another and therefore truly become evangelists in the world, we must become people of engaged, interested relationship.
Today’s song is one that I have included before entitled “Truth.” It speaks of the roots that we all have in faith and in culture. It reminds us that our own reception of faith has been inextricably intertwined with our own life experience. If we understand the dependence of our own faith on our own “soil,” then we become more sensitive to the inner-life of those with whom we would share.
Other News
Schedule Changes are coming to Parish Liturgies!
Beginning Ash Wednesday (February 17) we will have daily masses, Wednesday through Friday at 8:30am. These will be for “at risk” parishioners who wish to come back to mass but are not quite ready for the larger group. Masses will be capped at 25 persons per celebration and sign up will be through the website (or you can call the Church). More details will be coming. At least one of these masses each week will be a school mass (most often, Thursdays), and so sign-ups will not be available for that mass.
Beginning the First Weekend of Lent (February 20 and 21) we will add our 7:30 mass back into our weekend schedule. We will begin allowing sign-ups for mass in the parish center as well, where mass can be viewed on the large screen and communion will be brought in.
At Easter we will re-start our 10:45 mass. At that time our “video” mass will change as well, as we will go to livestream masses only. This means that “virtual attendance” will need to be at regular mass times. If you want to “attend” 4:30 mass, it will be at 4:30. This allows us to start moving back towards the practice of gathering together by participating together at the same time, even if we are not in the same space just yet.
God bless and have a wonderful week,
Father Pat
Gospel | Mark 4:1-20
On another occasion, Jesus began to teach by the sea.
A very large crowd gathered around him
so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down.
And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land.
And he taught them at length in parables,
and in the course of his instruction he said to them,
“Hear this! A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and the birds came and ate it up.
Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep.
And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it
and it produced no grain.
And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit.
It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”
He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”
A very large crowd gathered around him
so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down.
And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land.
And he taught them at length in parables,
and in the course of his instruction he said to them,
“Hear this! A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and the birds came and ate it up.
Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep.
And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it
and it produced no grain.
And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit.
It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”
He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”
And when he was alone,
those present along with the Twelve
questioned him about the parables.
He answered them,
“The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.
But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that
those present along with the Twelve
questioned him about the parables.
He answered them,
“The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.
But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that
they may look and see but not perceive,
and hear and listen but not understand,
in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.”
and hear and listen but not understand,
in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.”
Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable?
Then how will you understand any of the parables?
The sower sows the word.
These are the ones on the path where the word is sown.
As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once
and takes away the word sown in them.
And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who,
when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy.
But they have no roots; they last only for a time.
Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word,
they quickly fall away.
Those sown among thorns are another sort.
They are the people who hear the word,
but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches,
and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word,
and it bears no fruit.
But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it
and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”
Then how will you understand any of the parables?
The sower sows the word.
These are the ones on the path where the word is sown.
As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once
and takes away the word sown in them.
And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who,
when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy.
But they have no roots; they last only for a time.
Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word,
they quickly fall away.
Those sown among thorns are another sort.
They are the people who hear the word,
but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches,
and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word,
and it bears no fruit.
But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it
and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”
"Truth" by Andrea Ramsey
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