Weekend Wisdom - November 9th, 2025
From the desk of Deacon Mark
Many years ago, I attended an amazing parish mission led by Fr. Dan Felton when he was a priest in our diocese. (He was consecrated Bishop in 2021 and now serves as the shepherd for the Diocese of Duluth). This is one of the stories that he shared at the retreat…
A pious and virtuous man died and instantly found himself in the presence of Jesus in heaven. Jesus looked at the man, and loved him, and said the words that we should all long to hear: “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come, share your master’s joy.” Then Jesus paused and said,
“But, before you enter, I have one question for you… Who did you bring with you?”
Wow! Great question!! Each of us shares this two-fold mission… First, following Jesus and his teachings so that one day, we will be in the presence of Jesus in heaven. The other part of our mission is to share our faith with others! This story from Fr. Dan helped influence the creation of my personal mission: “Eternal life with Christ bringing to Him a harvest of souls!”
I live out my mission in various ways including the blessing of being a minister of the Sacrament of Baptism and preparing adults for the Sacraments of Initiation via the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults, or OCIA for short.
This year we are blessed with seven people from St. Mary and St. Francis Xavier parishes who are part of this OCIA faith journey, including four Catechumens - - unbaptized adults with very little knowledge of Jesus and his church. Please join me in praying for them… Ahnalee, Delainey, Iris, Joe, Kyle, Nick, and Stephaine.
This year, we started the OCIA process using an excellent video series called “The Search”, which is found on FORMED.org. Topics have included, “What Do You Seek?”, “Who Are You?”, “Why a God?”, “What’s Our Story?”, and “Who is Jesus?”. Each of these videos is about 20 minutes long, and I highly recommend them for all adults and young adults. Even if you’re a life-long Catholic!
Here’s the good news… all of the great content on FORMED.org is free! Just go to www.formed.org Click on "Find your Parish Subscription", follow the steps to "sign up", complete your user information and create a password.
Let us take to heart the last words of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel: (MT 28:19-20) “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
May God bless you and your family!
Deacon Mark!