Greetings in Christ, all! I wanted to take a moment to tell you guys about last week. Most of you met Fr. Tom, a priest who came here from Florida to help us for a couple of days. Fr. Tom is part of a group called “Cross Catholic Outreach,” an organization dedicated to caring for the poor and underprivileged. One of the ways they do this is by uniting retired priests with parishes that need weekend help. With Fr. Le gone, we needed help but couldn’t find any, so we called them and they were able to send us Fr. Tom…praise God. They left information out in the church if anyone wants to send them a donation.
This week we are excited to be celebrating the feast of St. Mark the Evangelist. My parish in Goodrich bears the name of this marvelous saint…what do we know about him?
Most of what we know comes from the New Testament. We know that when St. Peter escaped from prison, he fled to the home where St. Mark’s mom lived. We know that he traveled with Sts. Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey and it appears he abandoned them at some point, which angered St. Paul. Because of that, he didn’t go with Paul and Barnabas on their second journey. They seem to have reconciled, as St. Paul later asked St. Mark to visit him in prison. He is probably most famous for authoring the Gospel of Mark.
St. Mark was eventually made the Bishop of Alexandria, where he served faithfully and well. On Easter of 68 AD, he was arrested while celebrating Mass. He was beaten, tied to a horse and dragged through the streets until he died. His body lies in Venice at St. Mark’s Basilica.
We are so grateful for St. Mark. We’re grateful for his example and for his prayers.
I’ll ask you to pray in a special way for the people of St. Mark in Goodrich this week.
May Jesus bless you all; I’m so thankful to God for all of you.
fjk