Dear Parishioners,

         I am writing this column from Wheeling, West Virginia where I am attending a Priest Conference at Oglebay Park, a very large and beautiful resort just a couple of hours from Cleveland. There are several priests here from the Cleveland Diocese so it was nice to run into them after I arrived. The Church encourages its clergy to take advantage of opportunities for continuing education, and I am happy to do so as I love to learn more about our Catholic faith. In last week’s column I mentioned Dr. Scott Hahn, one of the presenters who has written numerous books based especially upon his knowledge of Sacred Scripture. He continues to inspire and to motivate us to spread the Word of God with joy and hope. I just listened to a talk by Dr. John Bergsma who spoke on the Gospel of Matthew. Now I have studied Matthew’s gospel in the seminary and throughout my 37 years as a priest, but I continue to learn more about him even now and for that I am grateful. For example, I did not know there were actually 3 pairs of brothers who were apostles: Peter & his brother Andrew, John and his brother James (the Greater) and to my surprise, Matthew (or “Levi”…Jesus likely gave him the new name of Matthew) and his likely brother James (the Lesser). Matthew was somewhat of the “black sheep” of his family because he was a tax collector. Dr. Bergsma explained that we still don’t quite grasp what that meant to the Jews of his time. He would have been looked upon then as we look upon drug dealers today. He worked for the Roman Occupation and so against his own people, the Jews. But Jesus called him to repentance and to apostleship, and he responded. There’s always so much to learn about scripture and about every other aspect of our Catholic faith and it always brings me joy to know something I didn’t know before. And we learned much more about Matthew & his gospel besides. So I hope to continue to share with you what has been shared with me during these times of continued education. I will be back to celebrate Mass with you this weekend. 

       We also heard from one of the co-founders of a popular (THE most popular) Catholic app called “Hallow.” It’s a free app (though there is a paid version for those who are interested) which you can download to your iPhone or Android phone. It is an app that is designed to simply help people to pray. And it is specifically Catholic (though of course can be used by anyone who wishes to pray more). It’s great to meet the creators & designers of these apps in person and to hear the story of how they became inspired to start such an app and how it has been a journey of faith for them as they responded to God’s call to really be part of the evangelization ministry today, not unlike St. Matthew. We have no idea how much money, time and effort goes into something that may seem so simple and effortless to us. But people have invested so much into something like a simple app that helps people to pray. I have used this app and continue to use it to this day. It even features people like Dr. Scott Hahn whom I mentioned earlier as he guides people in prayer. It also includes people I’ve spoken of or whom you may have heard of like Bishop Robert Barron and Father Mike Schmitz, both of whom are well known evangelists in our country. So may I suggest you download the app & see how it can help you to pray better and more often, for the Scripture says that we should pray always with grateful hearts, especially in times of struggle and hardship.

I hope that you are enjoying these summer days and taking advantage of the opportunity to rest and recreate. But let us remain faithful to prayer, especially with each other at Mass.

Fr. James P. Schmitz