Reaching the Ends of the Earth

At the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus gives the great commission telling his followers, “Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (28:19-20). He sends them to all the nations instructing them to make disciples and teach. We have been trying to fulfill this commission in a special way over the past few months during the Year of Discipleship. This has brought a few new initiatives such as the Marian Procession last August, the book “Into His Likeness” and Connect Groups.

I am happy to announce that we have launched a new initiative. It may seem like too much activity, but this initiative is specifically for busy people. Many parishioners don’t have an opportunity to come to an evening event or group. Maybe they work second shift, raise children, or don’t like to read. This new initiative has our busy parishioners in mind. We have launched a podcast called “Darting through the Faith” and it is hosted by myself and Immaculate Conception parishioner Julia Monnin. We will be darting through different aspects of the Catholic faith each week and focusing especially on the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

If you can’t make it to any other activity, hopefully you can listen to a 30-40 minute podcast. Podcasts are basically radio shows that you can download for free on a phone, computer, or tablet and listen at your leisure. They are perfect for listening in the car, while doing chores, exercising or maybe during work. I hope this will be fruitful for parishioners in their journey as disciples of Jesus Christ. It is available on Spotify, Google, Anchor, and other platforms. As of this writing, we are still waiting on approval from Apple Podcasts.

Another digital initiative is the publication of our homilies online. If you go to our website petersburgparishes.org, and click on the media tab, there is a page for homilies. Both Fr. Jarred and my homilies are posted there. Through these digital means, may the Gospel of Jesus Christ reach the ends of the earth.

Jesus’ great commission doesn’t end with the death of the Apostles, he continues to invite people to be apostles to their generation. He wants to raise up new leaders for His Kingdom. Our parishes have been asked to participate in forming new leaders in an exciting way. I was asked to host a seminarian for the next academic year while he is on his pastoral internship. This is really exciting! We will have one of our seminarians living and serving in our four parishes for the entirety of the 2020-2021 academic year. I am not sure which one of the seven men will be assigned to our parishes yet.

All of the pastoral interns will have completed at least four years in the seminary already. He will be with us for the 2020-2021 school year after which he will return for two more years of formation. If all goes well, he will be ordained a deacon in April 2022 and a priest in May 2023. Please begin to pray for this man. As we get closer to his arrival in August, I’ll communicate more about him and his role.

I pray that you have a fruitful Lent. Please keep praying for myself, Fr. Jarred, our staff, and all the wonderful leaders in our parishes.

Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Sean Wilson