Beauty, Goodness, Truth, and Friendship in Christ
Fr. David Barnes • July 10, 2024
Dear Friends in Christ,
Although it is still being tweaked, our new parish website is up and running. If you open up the website, the first thing you will see are these words: “Beauty, Goodness, Truth, and Friendship in Christ.”
If I had to articulate what my vision is for a parish, those words probably encapsulate it best. As I work together with the priests, deacons, staff, and all of you to follow Christ and to build up our life together as a parish, I think about it in those terms.
I want our parish to be a place of true beauty. That certainly involves the upkeep of the property and the maintenance of our buildings. More importantly, however, it involves dedicating ourselves to attending to the beauty of the Sacred Liturgy. The Sacred Liturgy should elevate our minds and our hearts, allowing us to experience the transcendent. Our vestments, our music, our proclamation of the Word, the manner in which we dress for Mass, our attentiveness to the Liturgical Norms, and many other details all assist in allowing people to pierce beyond the here and now so as to taste a glimpse of the eternal. People are starving for beauty. We have the opportunity to provide for their hunger.
And it is not only in the Sacred Liturgy. My hope is that we can provide opportunities to encounter beauty in other ways too.
A parish should be a place where we encounter goodness. Goodness is attractive. When I arrived at St. Patrick Parish about a year ago, one of the first things that struck me is the evident goodness of the people here. You might be so used to it that you do not even notice it, but for someone who is new, it is quite striking. Being a place where we care about one another, attend to the needs of the poor, are generous in serving others, and respond to the needs of each other is most definitely a way to grow our parish. The more we give ourselves over to this community, the stronger this parish becomes and the more attractive it becomes to others. I thank you for all the ways that your goodness builds up our life together. I encourage you to respond generously to the many needs of the parish by serving.
I want to be a parish where we encounter the Truth. That happens in so many ways. It happens when the priests and deacons pray well and preach the Word of God with seriousness and devotion. It happens in our School and Religious Education Program. It happens in Adult Education (which I hope to expand). It happens through our studying the Faith. By expanding our confession times, we have the opportunity to live more deeply in the Truth, by acknowledging our sins and experiencing the merciful gaze of Christ (who is Truth itself). I would like our parish to be a place where we learn to live in the Truth of Christ. The Truth is attractive. The more we live in the Truth, the more we hunger for it. We live in a culture that seeks to escape from the Truth, thinking that the Truth is somehow against the human person. In reality, the Truth is the only thing that makes us truly free. I want our parish to continue to be a place where the Truth is proclaimed and lived.
And finally, Friendship in Christ. I am convinced that a parish needs to be a place where we experience the embrace of Christ through the experience of deep friendship. Friendship is attractive. Friendship helps us to live in the Truth. In friendship, we experience beauty and goodness. It is my hope that our parish increasingly becomes a place where people live in friendship with one another. It has been my experience, both as a parish priest, a college chaplain, and as a seminary faculty member that friendship is key to building up a community. Christian friendship is awesome. I look forward to providing opportunities in the parish to build up friendship.
So there it is. As I think about our life together, that is kind of the paradigm. Beauty, Goodness, Truth, and Friendship in Christ. I am grateful to the Lord that we are all together.
Your Brother in Christ,
Fr. David Barnes
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Pastor's Notes
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On the front of our bulletin each week are the words: “Beauty, Goodness, Truth, and Friendship in Christ.” This past week I have seen so many instances of those words being brought to life in our parish. There has been something so wholesome about all that has taken place in these days. Many times this week I had the sense that the Lord is doing something beautiful among us. Last Saturday morning our weekly Men’s Group was well-attended. During Lent the Men’s Group has been doing a study on the Seven Deadly Sins and the opposing Virtues. We celebrated this week both the Feast of St. Joseph and the Feast of our patron, St. Patrick. Last Saturday evening over two hundred parishioners gathered for dinner, dancing, and singing. It was so beautiful to see parishioners in their eighties, only a few weeks old, and everything in between, all enjoying one another’s company. Many thanks to Fr. Harrington, our parish staff, and the incredible parishioners who put the whole thing together. It felt so wholesome. On Monday, the second graders at St. Patrick School received their First Reconciliation. What a beautiful privilege it was to witness the devotion of those children. On St. Patrick's Day I had the school Mass. I was so impressed by how knowledgeable the students were about St. Patrick! During my homily, at one point I asked, “What is the food that strengthens our friendship with Jesus?” A child said, “The Bread.” I said, “Well, it is correct but it’s more than just ordinary bread. What is it really?” Some pre-k four-year-old yelled out, “It’s the Body of the Lord!” Made my day. Also at that Mass, one of our third-graders received her First Holy Communion. After that Mass, the whole school gathered for a celebration of St. Patrick where they put on a play about St. Patrick’s life, saying hymns to St. Patrick, offered prayers, and had a big parade. I was really moved when they were marching to the words, “For God and for St. Patrick!” Again, I was struck by how wholesome it all was. After the Noon Mass on St. Patrick’s Day, we had Irish Bread and tea in the parish hall for all of those who were at Mass. On March 19th, the Feast of St. Joseph, the Men’s Group hosted parishioners after the 6pm Mass and provided zeppole. This Saturday Fr. Sijo had a morning of retreat to help people live Lent in a deeper way. I have been very moved by the fidelity of so many of you to our two daily Masses during Lent and to the long confession lines! You’re an impressive lot! And today, of course, we welcome Archbishop Richard Henning for the Noon Mass. In a very real sense, us gathered together around the Eucharistic Altar with our Archbishop is the fullest expression of those words, “Beauty, Goodness, Truth, and Friendship in Christ.” It is in the Eucharist that we encounter the One who is Beauty, Goodness, and Truth. It is the Eucharist that binds us together into a communion of friendship with Christ and His Church. It is such a great joy and gift to be together with our Archbishop today. Repeatedly during these (and many other) events this week, I had that peaceful sense that, “This is just how things are supposed to be.” They were beautiful and wholesome moments. They are signs to me that Christ is here at work among us. Beauty, goodness, truth, and friendship in Christ are not merely words. They are a fact that is present and lived among us. Your Brother in Christ, Fr. David Barnes
