Pastor's Corner
March 11, 2018
I am writing this pastor’s corner from the Villa Maria del Mar retreat center in Santa Cruz, CA. I am attending the annual meeting of the superiors of our Province. In addition to the priors who have been elected as leaders of our priories and the superiors of our smaller houses who have been appointed by the Provincial, the Student Master and Novice Master have joined us, along with the Provincial and the friar who is his Vicar.
Even though I’m far from St. Dominic’s, I can still watch videos that are on FORMED.org! This week, like every week, there’s a short (just over seven minutes long) overview of the readings for this Sunday. This week, the theologian who is speaking is Dr. Scott Powell, who teaches at the Denver Catholic Biblical School - the lay division of the Archdiocese of Denver’s St. John Vianney Theological Seminary. It’s a great – and painless - way to prepare to hear the Scriptures at Mass on the weekend and to get more from them. In addition to the video reflection on the Scriptures, there’s also a guide, which has the readings for Sunday along with some reflections questions for lectio divina (sacred reading – a way of meditating on the scriptures), a suggested action step for the week, and a brief prayer. The friars meet each week for lectio divina in common on the Sunday Scriptures and I am going to suggest we use the questions on these guides to help structure our reflections.
I encourage you to also take a look at the video series on Confession that is found on our parish FORMED page. You can find it by going to www.saintdominics.formed.org. There are four videos for adults – I’ve put the first two up – and one for children. If you have children in the school, it will be a good preparation for them as they make come over as classes in the next two weeks for confession, as it’s a 12-minute video on “how to make a good confession.” The videos are professionally done, around 30 minutes long, and full of theological and psychological insights about this important sacrament that Jesus has given us prodigal sons and daughters a means to “come home” to the Father.