March 19 - Parish Mission with Dr. Ralph Martin

Today is the Third Sunday of Lent.  It seems to be going by very quickly.  On Friday and Saturday of this week we have our Parish Mission.  This is an event we have planning for several months now.  The theme for our mission this year is “Living as a Catholic in Challenging Times.”  There will be three talks.  Friday’s talk, which will take place after the Stations of the Cross at 7:00 p.m., will focus on the “Times We Live In.”  The two talks on Saturday morning, which will be held after the 9:00 a.m. Mass, will focus on the mission of Catholic lay people who are called to be witnesses and on the call to holiness.  We are called to be witnesses and saints! 

Our presenter for our Lenten Parish Mission this year is Dr. Ralph Martin.  He is president of Renewal Ministries, an organization devoted to Catholic renewal and evangelization.  Ralph also hosts The Choices We Face, a widely viewed weekly Catholic television and radio program distributed throughout the world. 

Ralph holds a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome and is a professor and the director of Graduate Theology Programs in the New Evangelization at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in the Archdiocese of Detroit.  He was named by Pope Benedict XVI as a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization and was also appointed as a “peritus” (expert) to the Synod of New Evangelization in October, 2012. 

Dr. Martin is the author of a number of books, the most recent of which are The Urgency of the New Evangelization:  Answering the Call, The Fulfillment of All Desire:  A Guidebook for the Journey to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints, and Will Many Be Saved?  What Vatican II Actually Teaches and Its Implications for the New Evangelization.  He and his wife Anne have six children and sixteen grandchildren and reside in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

Cardinal Wuerl invited Ralph to make all the presentations at the Archdiocese of Washington Convocation of Priests several years ago now.  It was there that I purchased a copy of his book The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook for the Journey to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints.  That has been one of the most influential and personally helpful books that I have read in the last ten years. 

It should be a great parish mission.  I hope that I shall see you there! 

Until next week, 

Fr. John Dillon 

Pastor