St. Mark Catholic Church Newsletter — Mar/Apr 2023

Saint Mark

Liturgy Schedule

Saturday Vigil: 5:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m. (Spanish)

Sunday: 7:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m. (reserved for 60 & above parishioners), 4:00 p.m. (Lifeteen)

Daily Mass: Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri, 7:30 a.m.; Wed, 12 p.m. (noon)

Adoration: Mon. - Thurs. 8:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. Fri. 8:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Confessions: Sat, 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Men of the Rosary + Fellowship

Helping Men Grow in Faith, Prayer and Community

Every Saturday at 7 a.m., men from St. Mark Parish meet to pray the Rosary. Their prayer is followed by an hour of fellowship beginning around 7:30 a.m.

“We need more strong Catholic men,” shares Ryan Kagay, one of the founders of Men of the Rosary + Fellowship Group. “Our mission is to form strong Catholic men to inspire their families and communities by exploring and exemplifying the faith.”

Men of the Rosary + Fellowship Group meets in the courtyard, weather permitting — in the event of inclement weather, the location is moved to the Chapel. Any man who wants to discover or deepen a relationship with Our Blessed Mother and other Catholic men are invited to join in the prayer and fellowship.

“This is a group in which we can deepen our relationship with Our

Catholic Faith Formation

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from the 2022 book, Stewardship Starts at Home: Using God’s Gifts To Grow As Disciples Of Christ In Our Domestic Church, written by stewardship expert/retreat leader Lisa McArdle and published by Catholic Stewardship Consultants. This excerpt is reprinted with permission from CSC.

There are Four Pillars of a Stewardship Parish — Prayer, Hospitality, Formation, and Service. The third pillar — Formation — teaches us to know and love our God and our faith.

According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Directory for Catechesis (2005, #20), there are six tasks of faith formation that constitute a unified whole by which faith formation seeks to achieve its objective. This primary objective is the formation of disciples of Jesus Christ.

The six tasks of formation promote knowledge of the faith, promote knowledge of the meaning of the liturgy and the sacraments, promote moral formation in Jesus Christ, teach us how to pray, prepare one to live in community, and participate actively in the life of the Church, and promote a missionary spirit that prepares one to be present as Christians in society.

Take a moment to consider how fully you are currently formed. When is the last time you read a book about the Catholic faith? When is the last time you participated in a Bible study? When is the last time you read and reflected on the readings before Mass? Or looked up something in the Catechism?

Frequently, the last faith formation parishioners receive dates back to when they completed their Confirmation preparation or attended their last religious formation class as a middle or high school student.

This means decades may have gone by since parishioners and family members have experienced formation.

If that is the last time that you have formed yourself or that members of your families have formed themselves, don’t panic. You are not alone.

This realization is an opportunity for growth. A chance to dip your toe back in the water of faith formation and even to learn alongside the members of your family, in-

cluding the youngest members who are also learning. Don’t ever feel embarrassed that you don’t know an answer to the faith questions asked to you by your children or grandchildren. Instead, learn together!

Remember, the more fully you are formed, the better you will understand God’s calling for your family. Furthermore, the more you are formed in the faith the easier it will be to answer the call of discipleship.

Being properly formed in our faith and listening to God’s call allows us to understand if we are on the right path or if we need to redirect. Being prayerful and well-formed are key to our following His plan for our lives instead of our own wishes and desires. Remember, as stewards, we strive to listen to God and use the gifts He has given us to serve those he places in our paths. Thankfully, it is easier now more than ever to form ourselves and our families.

There is no need to search for faith-formation opportunities. These options can be sent directly to our smartphones and tablets. Bishop Barron’s Word on Fire ministry sends free daily readings along with a brief gospel reflection straight to our inboxes. Matthew Kelly’s Dynamic Catholic offers Lenten and Advent opportunities with free, reflective videos that also arrive via email. Blessed is She even provides an endearing female faith formation perspective — perfect for women young and old. Plus, if you want to form yourself specifically in Scripture, you can also opt for the free podcast, The Bible in a Year featuring the entertaining Fr. Mike Schmitz, from Ascension Presents. Honestly, the possibilities are endless.

Formation is the fuel that keeps your family moving forward as stewards and in becoming all that Christ is calling you to be. Have confidence as you incorporate this ongoing learning into your daily routines.

To find out more about the Stewardship Starts at Home book, visit www.stewardship-starts-at-home.company.site.

Reflections on Lent and Stewardship From Pope Benedict XVI

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

With the passing from this life of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Dec. 31, I found it fitting to share with you some of his teachings and reflections on Lent, as we have now embarked on our own Lenten journeys.

Pope Benedict was a lifelong scholar, a priest for 71 years, and pope from 2005 to 2013. Throughout his papacy, he offered us all a treasure trove of reflections, prayers, and advice for our Lenten journeys and constantly reminded and encouraged us during this 40-day journey to increase our faith and charity. In other words, through conversion of heart, we must intensify our commitment to stewardship with the sharing of our gifts during Lent.

In his final Lenten message as pope in 2013, he wrote: “The celebration of Lent… offers us a valuable opportunity to meditate on the relationship between faith and charity: between believing in God — the God of Jesus Christ — and love, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and which guides us on the path of devotion to God and others.”

While Lent is a time when we tend to ramp up our prayer lives, Pope Benedict always pushed us to do even more, and he encouraged us to take the next step as good and faithful stewards. He explained how faith leads to charity, which is a response to God’s love for us, thus urging us to use our renewed faith by sharing our time, talent, and treasure with others.

He wrote: “The entire Christian life is a response to God’s love. The first response is precisely faith as the acceptance, filled with wonder and gratitude, of the unprecedented divine initiative that precedes us and summons us. And the ‘yes’ of faith marks the beginning of a radiant story of friendship with the Lord, which fills and gives full meaning to our whole life. But it is not enough for God that we simply accept his gratuitous love. Not only does he love us, but he wants to draw us to himself, to transform us in such a profound way as to bring us to say with Saint Paul: ‘it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me’” (cf. Gal 2:20).

Pope Benedict continued his 2013 Lenten message, saying: “For its part, charity ushers us into the love of God manifested in Christ and joins us in a personal and existential way to the total and unconditional self-giving of Jesus to the Father and to his brothers and sisters. By filling our hearts with his love, the Holy Spirit makes us sharers in Jesus’ filial devotion to God and fraternal devotion to every man” (cf. Rom 5:5).

While we grieve that he is no longer with us here, I remain grateful to our Lord for Pope Benedict XVI and his ministry and invite you to reflect on his teachings and messages on Lent as you continue your own Lenten journeys with trust and joy.

In Christ,

Fr. George Pastor

Want to read more from Pope Benedict XVI on the Lenten journey?

Pick up his 2006 book, Journey to Easter: Spiritual Reflections for the Lenten Season , and his 2012 book, Lent with Pope Benedict XVI: Meditations for Every Day .

A Letter From Our Pastor

A Look Back at Our Ministry Fair and Promoting and Celebrating Stewardship

We thank all who facilitated and attended our Ministry Fair — a great time and place to consider how we can all return our stewardship gifts to God and our parish.

We also celebrated stewardship in action throughout our parish during the Volunteer Appreciation Gathering. We thank all those who share their time and talents with us!

and Volunteer Appreciation Gathering

Stewardship in Our Faith Community

Don’t Forget to Return Your Commitment Card!

Please remember to turn in your commitment cards to the parish as soon as possible. We appreciate your willingness to participate in this year’s Stewardship Renewal. The more we grow to embrace and understand the stewardship way of life, the more our parish will flourish and grow!

Mark

How The Wise Men’s Gifts

We experience great joy when we celebrate the coming of the Magi at Epiphany each year. For many of us, it is the completion of Christmas. Yet, the gifts offered by the Magi — gold, frankincense, and myrrh — can serve to guide us on our stewardship journeys as we observe Lent this month.

It may seem strange to connect the joyful celebration of Epiphany with the penitential season of Lent. But our spiritual life should not be divided into separate, unconnected bits, and in the same way, the Church’s liturgical year also flows from one season to another. The different feasts and seasons certainly have different emphases, but they are intended to build on each other.

So, let’s see if we can connect what the Magi gave Jesus with what we’re going to offer Him this Lent.

The basic ingredients for our Lenten rule come from what is termed the “Three Notable Duties” — prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These in turn come from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). How do we connect the wise men’s gifts with the Three Notable Duties?

Frankincense is the basic ingredient in the incense used in the worship of God, in the ancient world, and in the Church today. Offering it to Jesus points out His divine nature, and so it symbolizes prayer — the stewardship of time. Our Lenten rule needs to include prayer and worship. Of course, we are bound to worship at Sunday Mass yearround. Maybe during Lent, we might add a weekday Mass. Perhaps we can increase the time we devote to private prayer at home or at adoration. Devotional reading from the Bible or another appropriate book can be added. In addition, don’t forget the possibility of adding family devotions during Lent, so that the whole family prays together.

When we offer our gold to Christ to build His Church and to help His poor, we are engaged in almsgiving — the stewardship of treasure. While giving from the treasure God has entrusted to us is a duty throughout the whole year, maybe this Lent we can practice being a little more generous than usual. If our giving is a thankful response to the gift of eternal life that God has given us, we will find that the giving is indeed a means of grace.

Symbolize Our Lenten Obligations

For centuries, myrrh has been associated with fasting. In the ancient world, it was regularly used in embalming. Generations of theological writers have seen the gift of myrrh as a foreshadowing of Christ’s sufferings.

Fasting may be the most difficult of the Three Notable Duties for modern Americans. We usually think of fasting only under the heading of dieting to lose weight. Instead, try to think of fasting as a way to become more spiritually fit. Body and spirit affect each other. The whole sacramental system is built on the truth that we can receive spiritual grace through material things and physical actions.

Our specific requirements of fasting are limited — abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent, and a reduction in the quantity of food we eat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. But the discipline of our physical bodies for our spiritual well-being does not have to be limited to Lent! Gold, frankincense, and myrrh were indeed valuable gifts for the wise men to present to the Child Jesus, which is stewardship as its very core. So, when we look at their symbolism, we can see their relationship to the Three Notable Duties of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. What gifts of our time, talent, and treasure are we going to offer to Jesus this Lent?

Men of the Rosary + Fellowship

Blessed Mother and discuss and learn more about our Catholic faith,” Ryan says. “Men are more equipped and inspired to evangelize when they have the support of their brothers and their Blessed Mother Mary.”

This group provides a great opportunity to grow in brotherhood with fellow Catholic men, and there is incredible strength to be found in brotherhood.

“Many men are looking for that brotherhood, but don’t know where to find it, or haven’t found the right group,” Ryan says. “The men of this group will all tell you that they feel like something is missing from their weekend if they aren’t able to make it. It is hard to explain until is experienced, but it is life-changing.”

Ryan shares that the Rosary is important to him because Our Lady promises us her help, protection, and intercession when we pray the Rosary. As a husband and a father, he is striving to lead his family to heaven and he believes that praying the Rosary is one way to do that.

The group also invites the men to bring their families on the first Saturday of each month to pray the

continued from front cover

Rosary and attend First Saturday Mass, reconciliation, and adoration as their fellowship for that week. This is a great way for men to involve their families in prayer and the church community.

To join the Men of the Rosary + Fellowship Group, or for more information, contact Ryan Kagay at rfkagay@gmail.com or Dan Kulle at dan@bankersautos.com.

“This is a group in which we can deepen our relationship with Our Blessed Mother and discuss and learn more about our Catholic faith. Men are more equipped and inspired to evangelize when they have the support of their brothers and their Blessed Mother Mary.”

RYAN KAGAY

Saint Mark

6500 Crawford Road│Argyle, TX 76226 (940) 387-6223│www.stmarkdenton.org

Lenten Activities and Holy Week Schedule

Fridays of Lent

K of C Lenten Fish Fry — 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Stations of the Cross and Benediction — 7 p.m.

Weekly Reconciliation

Wednesdays — 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Saturdays — 3 to 4 p.m.

Holy Week

Holy Thursday — 7 p.m.

Good Friday — Stations of the Cross at 3 p.m.

Lord’s Passion, Veneration of the Cross, and Communion at 7 p.m.

Holy Saturday — Easter Vigil at 8 p.m.

Easter Sunday Masses — 7 a.m., 9 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m.

All Masses can be streamed any time on the parish Facebook page at www.facebook.com/st.markdenton