Keeping the Baptismal Light Burning
Fr. David Barnes • May 7, 2025
Dear Friends in Christ,
He is Risen!
As I write this, the Church has concluded its period of mourning for Pope Francis, and the Cardinals will soon be electing a new Pope. By the time you read this, I imagine that we will all know who it is and we will hear his name today during the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass. May the new Holy Father (if we have one by the time you read this) be strengthened in his Petrine Ministry, and may he shepherd, feed, and guard the flock entrusted to his care.
Speaking of feeding the flock, it has been a wonderful joy over the past two weeks to give Holy Communion to our 2nd graders for the first time. On the day of their baptism, their parents and godparents were handed a candle on behalf of their child and were told, “Receive the light of Christ.” Then they were told,
“Parents and godparents, this light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly. This child of yours has been enlightened by Christ. He (she) is to walk always as a child of the light. May he (she) keep the flame of faith alive in his (her) heart. When the Lord comes, may he (she) go out to meet him with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom.”
That candle, with its small flame, is in a precarious position. It is exposed to the elements, risks being smothered for lack of oxygen, could easily be blown out by the wind, or dampened by the rain. That candle reminds the parents of what a precious gift Faith is and how so much is depending upon them to guard and nourish the Faith of their children.
Those children have been enlightened by Christ, but their Faith is lived in a world that exposes them to all sorts of dangers. Without being raised in an environment of prayer and Sunday Mass–the oxygen of the spiritual life–the risk of their light being extinguished is real. Those children will be constantly exposed to the winds of passing fads and false ideologies that blow hard against the light of Faith. Without their parents teaching them the Faith and helping them daily to grow in the Faith, this unsheltered light is exposed and vulnerable.
These children will grow older and will face trials and tribulations. They will sometimes experience the darkness of the world and of the culture. With the light of Faith, they will be able to find their way. If they have protected that tiny flame of Faith, it will grow and will enlighten their path. Even if the rains pour down upon them, if the little flame is tended to and guarded, year upon year, it will grow and become more reliable and certain. A flicker will become a steady flame.
Faith formation for children in the parish is a supplement, but it cannot replace the role of parents. The first teachers of children in their faith are the parents. The parish cannot replace the parents. We can only try to help them. We want to partner with parents in raising their children in the Faith, but religious education is not magic. An hour a week, a few times a month, a few times a year will not produce a life-long, faithful, disciple of Jesus. If it did, all the people who have done that for the past decades would be filling our pews on Sundays.
When we light a candle and walk with it, we naturally put our hand up to protect the flame. When we light a fire, we do the same thing, and then we gently blow to get the flame to burn more brightly. As a parish, we need to engage more with parents and help and equip them to fulfill the solemn obligation of keeping that light burning brightly. How? That remains to be seen, but we are committed to working on it.
Lastly, I want to wish all of our Mothers a Happy Mothers’ Day! Whether our Mothers are still with us or in Heaven, may the Lord reward them for their goodness.
Your Brother in Christ,
Fr. David Barnes
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Pastor's Notes
Last Sunday and again this Sunday, the Gospel speaks to us about the need for vigilance, preparedness, and readiness in the spiritual life. We are to live in this world as pilgrims, but not as permanent residents. The things of this world are given to us, not as ends in themselves, but as means to help us to heaven. Thus, our possessions, gifts, talents, and time, are all given to us in order to assist us on the path to heaven. These gospels make us ask ourselves, “What do I cling to?” Clinging to worldly things–like our time, our possessions, our money–often disfigures us. The image of the bitter, cranky miser comes to mind. Angry and anxious, he accumulates more and more in a frantic pursuit of a sense of safety that slips more and more from his grasp. The miser does not become freer and happier as he ages. Instead, the more he accumulates and clings to, the less happy he becomes. The Gospel instead proposes that we store up for ourselves an inexhaustible treasure in heaven. The one who clings to the promise of eternal life experiences tremendous freedom and begins to taste here below a taste of the world to come. The generous person is filled with hope and lives, not as a prisoner of this world but as a pilgrim passing through. Last week, Fr. Patrick mentioned in the bulletin that he was looking for someone who might want to donate to our new youth ministry projects. Immediately, various parishioners responded. That kind of prompt and joyful generosity is a sign of the kingdom among us. I’m sure people who are generous don’t often think about how their generosity points others to heaven, but I want to thank all of you who live and serve among us as examples of generosity. You visit the sick, feed the poor, knit and pray for those who feel the need for comfort, you serve the parish on Sundays, contribute to the needs of the parish, lend an ear to the lonely, and give of your time, your treasure, and your talent. You are generous in offering a kind word or a helping hand. You live in gratitude for what you’ve been given and you give joyfully. You store up treasure in heaven, and by doing so, you become a sign to the rest of us, pointing us to heaven. We are very blessed to be surrounded by such generous examples. Now, a few miscellaneous matters: August 15th is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is a Holy Day of Obligation. Don’t forget! This is the last weekend that John Manning, our seminarian, will be with us. I am happy that John will be here a few hours each week during the school year, but not on Sundays, so many of you won’t see him. We were (and will continue to be) very happy to have John with us. Most importantly, pray for John, that the Lord continue to strengthen him in his vocation. Please wish him well as you leave Masses this weekend. Last week, I had Mass at LifeCare, which is a local nursing and rehabilitation center. We have Mass there every month. As I distributed Holy Communion, I was really moved by the privilege it is to be a priest and by the faith of these parishioners of ours. To all of our parishioners who are homebound or in various care facilities, I want you to know that you are a vital part of our parish. I have no doubt that your prayers and sufferings are a source of incredible graces for our parish and for the Church and the world. I have no doubt that your generosity in offering your physical sufferings, your loneliness, and your prayers is drawing many souls into the kingdom. We are grateful for you and we love you. Your Brother in Christ, Fr. David Barnes
The month of August (which has snuck upon us) is filled with some wonderful feast days. Chief among them, of course, is August 15th, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. During August we also celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, the Memorial of the Queenship of Mary, and the Memorial of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. Scattered throughout the month are also the feast days of many wonderful priest saints such as St. Alphonsus, St. Peter Julian Eymard, St. Dominic, Pope St. Pius X, Bernard of Clairveaux, St. Augustine, St. John Eudes, and St. Maximilian Kolbe. On August 4th, the Church celebrates the feast of the patron saint of parish priests, St. Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney (often referred to as St. John Vianney). The Church’s calendar has always been for me a way of entering into prayer and the sacred mysteries. It helps me to see my life as part of something bigger than myself and to see that time is sanctified. We do not “make it up as we go along,” but rather we enter into the mysteries. The liturgical seasons, the feasts of saints, and the Mysteries of our Lord’s life, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension help us to make sense of our life here and now. They shine light upon our life here and now and they provide points of access into the Sacred. August, particularly known for its many feasts of saintly priests, provides priests an opportunity to ponder their own vocation, to be renewed in their pastoral ministry, and to seek the intercession of their saintly models. For me, August provides me an opportunity to reflect upon my own priestly ministry here at St. Patrick Parish. It was two years ago in August that the Cardinal assigned me here. First–on the Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe–as Administrator, and then, on the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, as Pastor. Both of them suffered rather gruesome martyrdoms, so I was hoping that these were not indications of how things would go for me in this assignment! I tend to think that there is not one particular reason for these particular patrons to be given to me, but rather they are given to me as heavenly friends to help me to see whatever it is that the Lord wants from me at a given moment. One thing that strikes me this year about these two patrons is that they both bore witness to the family and died for the sake of the family. John the Baptist died defending marriage and Maximilian Kolbe offered himself as a replacement for a Jewish husband and father who had been selected for execution in a Nazi concentration camp. In addition to wanting to help in building up and strengthening individual marriages and families, this August, I ask the Lord for the grace to be more dedicated to our parish family, shepherding it well, being a faithful father. I’d appreciate your prayers in this regard. I pray for you every day and am grateful whenever someone tells me that they are praying for me. I am very grateful to be the parish priest of this parish family. A couple of weeks ago, some friends of mine from a previous parish came for Mass here and we had dinner together afterwards. They commented on how friendly and welcoming you all were. A week later, a young family I know from when I was at BU showed up for Sunday Mass and we had breakfast afterwards. They too commented on how friendly and welcoming you all were. That is also my experience and the experience of the priests and seminarians assigned here. I’ve heard priests over the years feel run down by criticism, negativity, and continuous complaints. I always feel bad about that. I know that I speak for the priests and seminarians assigned here that we are grateful for your constant kindness, support, and love. We are grateful to be part of this family. Your Brother in Christ, Fr. David Barnes
When I was assigned to the Catholic Center at Boston University, I was always struck by what you might call the “evangelical ingenuity” of the college men and women at the Catholic Center. In a particular way, at the beginning of each year, the students there would put together a host of events–trips for cannolis in the North End, a barbecue, ultimate frisbee night, game night, and other similar events. The events were intended to be inviting and to be a way for new students to ease their way into a community. It’s obviously a lot easier to do that on a college campus than in a parish. On a college campus, the kids are in classes with one another, living in the same dorms together, and eating in the same dining halls. It’s amazing how many kids you could meet simply by tossing around a frisbee and handing out free freeze-pops! Parish life is a little more complicated in this regard. At the same time, we too want to provide opportunities for people to encounter Christ. We want to provide moments where it is possible for someone to “ease in” to Catholic life. Or, if they are already somewhat involved, to ease them into a deeper Catholic life. I think of the encounter that John and Andrew had with the Lord when Jesus asked them, “What are you looking for?” Their somewhat clumsy response was, “Master, where do you stay?” Jesus did not then provide them a list of prayers to say or a list of do’s and don’ts, instead he said, “Come and see.” In so many ways, this seems to me to be the model for evangelization. The Lord invites them to go deeper. He invites them to come and experience His friendship, His Presence. He eases them into a relationship with Himself and invites them into something attractive and wonderful. On a parish level, I am impressed by how many opportunities there are for people to ease into a deeper relationship with the Lord. There are groups that attend to those who are grieving the loss of loved ones and groups that attend to those experiencing separation and divorce. There are groups that bring people together to serve the poor, a group for young couples and families, a group of men and women who are leaders in our emerging youth ministry program, prayer groups, the Thursday night bible study, a women’s bible study, a men’s group, and during the summer, a small group that watches and discusses, “The Chosen” together. There are also now small groups of high school students meeting together with mentors to help them to encounter the joy and depth of Catholic life. These “official” groups are not the only way. I am always happy to hear how other parishioners meet up with one another after Mass for coffee or who check in on one another during the week. All of these groups are intended to draw one another into deeper communion with one another and with the Lord. The Lord is inviting everyone into a deeper friendship with Himself. He is inviting all of us to, “Come and See.” One thing I deeply admired about the young college students was their passion for evangelization and their love for their fellow students. I also admired their capacity to find ways to ease others in. They hung out with others and invited them to come and share a meal or a cup of coffee. They showed others that they cared about them and they showed themselves to be, in fact, normal and fun human beings. These friendships eventually would lead–slowly–to deeper conversations and invitations to, “Come and See.” In the gospels we read how Jesus would visit the home of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary and share meals and friendship together. This is the Lord’s method. The college students adopted this method as their own. Friendship is a key to evangelizing. In the friendship of the Church, we come to encounter the deeper life that the Lord desires for us. We come to experience communion. The Eucharist–Holy Communion–is both the source and the summit of true communion. The Eucharist not only deepens our own communion with the Lord and with each other, but it also impels us–out of love–to invite all others to “come and see” this new way of life, this new way of being. Not everyone is yet ready to partake of the Eucharist, but our desire should be to–little by little–help them experience friendship in the Lord. And ease them–little by little–into full communion in the Church, until they too are nourished by the Lord’s Body and Blood, the summit of communion. During the summer months, I have had lots of opportunities to be with friends–both lay people and priests–whose friendship deepens my own humanity and leads me to a deeper friendship with the Lord. In my own life, I have discovered that simply living the Catholic life in friendship with others has a magnetic power to draw others more deeply into deeper communion with the Lord. When we love one another in the Lord, those friendships contain within themselves an attractive quality that themselves become a visible invitation to others to “come and see.” My prayer is that our communion together as a parish might be for all we encounter, a call, a plea, and an invitation to “come and see.” Your Brother in Christ, Fr. David Barnes
Just some scattered thoughts this week: Thank you to those of you who “step up” and serve the parish in a variety of capacities. It is the million “little things” that all of you do that make the whole place run. I know that many of you served the parish in the past and are no longer able to do so. I thank you also for all that you have done. I hope that your dedication and generosity inspires a new generation of parishioners to be of service to the parish. We need you. Recently the parish received a notification that someone remembered us in their will. When doing your estate planning, could you include St. Patrick Parish? All of us benefit from the generosity and thoughtfulness of those who have remembered St. Patrick Parish in their estate planning. Please pay it forward for the generations that follow us. You may have noticed in the local news that there was a break-in at our church this past week. As I write this, it seems as though nothing is missing. The alarm went off, I came over and discovered a window open and some minor disturbance and called the police. The Stoneham Police arrived here before I even finished the call. The Stoneham Police (and also the State Police and Andover Police) were professional, thorough, and very respectful of our church. Although the situation was unfortunate, I was very grateful to witness the Stoneham Police’s dedication to us and their genuine concern for us. Next weekend is Thien’s last weekend with us. Thien, a seminarian from the Archdiocese of Hanoi, Vietnam has been with us for two months. It feels like he only arrived yesterday! Thien will continue studying at St. John’s Seminary in Boston for the next several years, so hopefully he will come and visit. (And I hope he will come back and make me some more Vietnamese food!) It really was a great blessing having Thien with us. He jumped right in, was a joyful presence, and served the parish well. Last week there was a wonderful young adult gathering on the lawn of the church. A couple of our new youth discipleship small groups are up and running. Small, intentional, discipleship groups are an excellent way of forming lifelong disciples of the Lord. This week I swung by our parish grief group that is led by our Pastoral Associate, Diane McCarthy. There were over twenty people in attendance. What a wonderful work! We are very blessed as a parish to have such generous parishioners and staff. Thank You. Your Brother in Christ, Fr. David Barnes
Some years ago a small group of parishioners and I would meet every Friday evening and work our way through some text, seeking together to follow the Lord through our companionship. Then, for an hour or so, we’d socialize and share the joy of friendship in Christ. I left that parish thirteen years ago, but those friendships remain a part of my life. Some of that group still meet every Friday and they have invited others into their friendship. For me, that is parish life. This week two of those friends died, one rather suddenly and the other after a long illness. Their passing, of course, is a source of sorrow for their friends and loved ones. Their leaving us makes those left behind more deeply aware of how blessed we were to live life together and to follow the Lord together. It makes us realize how blessed we have been to be called by the Lord to walk together along the road of discipleship. Faith is not wishful thinking. Faith is not an emotional crutch to get through life. For the believer, Faith is an encounter with that which is most REAL. In the companionship of the Church, our Faith grows. In living closely the friendship of the Church, our heart recognizes and leaps at the constant rediscovery that Christ is true. For us, death is not a staring into the abyss of nothingness and meaninglessness. For us, death is another verification that Christ is indeed true. When we live a life of Faith together in friendship, the death of the other awakens within us not nostalgia for the past, but rather the joyful cry of those two disciples who walked together with Christ on the road to Emmaus: “Were not our hearts burning within us as he spoke to us along the way?” This week I will offer the funeral Masses for these two friends. Their departure, to be sure, is sorrowful, but it has also had a salutary effect. Their deaths remind me once again how beautiful and essential Christian friendship is and how the mission of the Church is lived and expressed through friendship. This summer our rectory has the added joy of the presence of two seminarians. Having them live with us, sharing meals together, praying together, and joining with other brother priests and seminarians in true fraternity has been for me a renewed encounter with the Lord. I am once again convinced of the irreplaceable value of friendship as the model for true evangelization. I hope, in part, their summer experience with us is an experience of true Christian fraternity. I end this letter with a quote from St. Augustine that for many years has been for me an apt description of my own experience of living the Catholic life closely with others. Your Brother in Christ, Fr. Barnes "There were other things done in their company which more completely seized my mind: to talk and to laugh with them; to do friendly acts of service for one another; to read well-written books together; at times to tell jokes and sometimes to be serious; to disagree at times, but without hard feelings, just as a man does with himself; and to keep our many discussions pleasant by the very rarity of such differences; to teach things to the others and to learn from them; to long impatiently for those who were absent, and to receive with joy those joining us. These and similar expressions, proceeding from the hearts of those who loved and repaid their comrades' love, by way of countenance, tongue, eyes, and a thousand pleasing gestures, were like fuel to set our minds ablaze and to make but one out of many." –St. Augustine
I once knew a couple who had been married for over seventy years. Some people would say, “They’ve been together so long, they even look like each other!” They came to Mass together every day, and I was always struck by the way they looked at one another. If one of them was speaking to me, the other was looking at the other with this glow of absolute affection. They were something else. They weren’t rich. They weren’t powerful. They were, however, in love. As old as they were, when you looked at them, you felt like they were still a couple of love-struck kids during their first week of dating. I am certain that in seventy years of marriage, that couple had its share of sorrows, hardships, and disappointments. Every life does. There was routine to their marriage. They got up and went to work, did laundry, and did all of the mundane activities that fill the hours of most of our lives. The ordinary did not suffocate their vocation. Instead, they lived the ordinary circumstances of life as an adventure. Sometimes, we think that the ordinary is the enemy of our happiness. People search for thrills to distract themselves from the ordinary. But, happiness is not found in fleeing the ordinary. It is discovered in living the ordinary differently. They lived the ordinary in a supernatural way. Every Sunday we come together for Mass. We are fairly ordinary people. We come together from our ordinary lives. We take ordinary bread and ordinary wine and place them upon the altar. In some sense, when the ordinary bread and the ordinary wine are placed upon the altar, we are also placing our ordinary selves–our ordinary lives–upon the altar too. The danger for us, however, is to allow ourselves to forget that what is happening is supernatural. That ordinary bread and wine are supernaturally transformed. We who receive the Eucharist are, in turn, transformed. The Eucharist transforms us and we, in turn, live our ordinary lives differently because we do not live on mere ordinary bread, but rather are nourished by and with God Himself. We who are changed are then sent into the world as seeds of the Kingdom. There’s a risk in Catholic life that instead of allowing the extraordinary to permeate the ordinary and elevate it, we attempt to make the extraordinary ordinary and cheapen it. If Mass, for example, becomes merely me “checking the box” of my religious duty this week, then something is lacking. If my approach to Mass is, “as long as it doesn’t interfere with the other things in my life, I’m okay with it,” something is missing. If I treat the Mass (and the Eucharist) like I am the customer and the parish is the service-provider, something is missing. Sometimes people allow their Catholic life to become rather functionary and transactional. It becomes stagnant. Think of what Jesus says in the gospel when he says, “What good is salt if it loses its flavor?” Much of our lives as Catholics does involve rather ordinary activity. When we come to Mass on Sunday, something extraordinary–something supernatural–occurs. Ordinary bread and wine become the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ. And, we consume the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ. We receive God. The more we take time to ponder our Faith, the more we come to know and appreciate the extraordinary gift of it. This is why preparing for Mass by silence, prayer, and meditation are so important. Before Mass, we prepare by saying things like, “Lord, I am here and am about to receive you–Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Jesus, help me to really know what I am doing and Who I am receiving. Help me unite myself to you in this Holy Mass. Help me to really pray this Mass well and to offer myself–every aspect of my life–with you to the Father.” After we receive Holy Communion, we spend time in awe and wonder that God loves us so much that He has given Himself to us in this spectacular way. The Christ who was born of Mary, the Christ who called and taught the apostles, who healed the sick, who forgave sinners, who died on the Cross, who rose from the Dead . . . that very same Christ has now given Himself entirely to me because He loves me. We take this time to thank Jesus for His love and for the privilege of this communion with Him. Without this Eucharistic amazement, our Catholic life risks becoming consumeristic and hollow. If you feel ever that you are in a rut or that your Faith life is not growing, that you are not growing in virtue, growing in greater love for God and for your neighbor, perhaps begin by spending time before each Mass really praying and pondering what is about to happen, and then, spend time after receiving the Eucharist really adoring God whom you have received. The most extraordinary moment of our week (or day) is when we receive the Eucharist. It enables us to live every ordinary moment in a supernatural way. That elderly couple looked at each other with a devotion and love that made them young in heart and their marriage seem both like an old treasure and a new discovery. That is how we want to approach the Eucharist, and that begins by spending time preparing to receive the Eucharist and in spending time thanking God for the gift of the Eucharist. Your Brother in Christ, Fr. David Barnes
