Monday Message, August 4, 2025
KNOW
This is the final week for the interviews with Annie. If you have not yet met with her, please fill out this form. Your parish runs the risk of not being included in the report to the bishop without your participation.
You should receive an email today with a new task in LEAD. This questionnaire asks that you make a request for Advent posters, Lenten posters, Catechist Journals, and copies of (in English and Spanish) of the Compendium to the Catechism. The compendiums are for pastors, so please check with them before making a request. The number of Catechist Journals must mirror the number of catechists in LEAD.
All these items will be distributed at the Fall Forum on September 13, 2025. Register here please.
Starting this fall, all parishes are invited to nominate a Witness of the Week – a catechist whom you wish to highlight. For more information, see the task in LEAD that will be assigned this week.
Also this fall, all catechist’s names will appear in the Fairfield County Catholic so we can thank them for their witness. If they are not enrolled in Catechist 2.0 formation in LEAD, they will not appear in the paper. Please use this link to get your folks enrolled if they are not already in the group and in formation.
The Bishop’s Office will be issuing updated norms for Confirmation ceremonies and an updated planning sheet on August 18, 2025. Stay tuned. Speaking of Confirmation, we have updated the learning path for Sponsors and Godparents with Spanish subtitles in the coming week (thanks to MS for that request).
Fr. Sudhir from St. Philip in Norwalk has used textbooks from Sadlier (2019) for grades 1-5 if anyone can use them. Please contact Fr. Sudhir for more information.
St. Catherine of Siena in Riverside is hiring a faith formation assistant. If you know anyone who might be interested, please have them contact Erin Teske at her email.
REFLECT
This morning’s first reading is among my favorites. Numbers 11 has Moses responding to the whining of the people with the plea to God that he (Moses) be struck down so he doesn’t have to listen to the complaints of the people.
I know you can relate.
But, like every story in Scripture, you have to keep reading. After his great, “Kill me now” moment, Moses is given instructions by God to go and find people smarter than himself and that God will take some of God’s own spirit from Moses and share it with the new leaders. You see, God tells Moses not so subtly, it was never about Moses. It was always about the people.
There is no doubt that I have surrounded myself with smart people. Todd’s leadership of the First Witness initiative, Priscilla’s passion for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, Carmela’s approach to LEAD, Laura (new to our team part time) and her eagerness to get it right the first time, and Bill’s social media prowess has prepared us well for the coming year. We are blessed.
Still, it helps to be reminded that it’s not about us. It’s about the people who call with questions about sacraments, or the couple who are late to marriage prep and the wedding looms, or the parents who want to raise faithful children and lack the language to do so – all of these people call your office and ours, and it would be easy to plead with God for deliverance from the banal, the cynic, and the lazy ones.
But those distractions are our ministry. They are the ones we have answered the call to serve.
So this year, surround yourself with smart people and listen to the people. Let God take His spirit and spread it around. It was a tough lesson for Moses and it’s a tough lesson for us to remember:
It is not about us. It never was.
LAUGH
