Weekend Wisdom - October 26th-27th, 2024
Dear Parishioners,
Let me start with a brief "Mares family faith history" to set the stage: I was born into a family that actively practices the Catholic faith. My grandparents were active in their church and I have many happy memories of helping with acts of service with them in caring for their church. I know my way around a sacristry fairly well for a layperson. My parents were also active in our parish, we brought up gifts, my dad was an usher, and my brother and I regularly served at Mass.
My husband, Jon did not have a strong faith as a young adult but was respectful and supportive of my faith. When we pursued marriage in the Catholic church, the priest at the time asked Jon if he was Catholic and he said "yes" because he attended church with me. Jon was shocked when the priest responded strongly "that he was not Catholic." Over the years, Jon continued to attend Mass regularly, we welcomed two sons who were baptized into the Catholic faith, and eventually, Jon went through the RCIA program and was confirmed at St. Mary by Fr. Mike in 2021. It was such a special moment and in a non-humble way, I felt like my major evangelization work was done.
Fast forward to the present day, Jon and I have recently found ourselves deep in a faith journey. Jon expressed interest in reading the Bible and I admitted while I’m familiar with the Bible stories, I had never actually fully read the Bible. Jon started in almost immediately and was quickly confused at the complexity of the text but still determined. I decided to go the route of the Hallow app’s audio “Bible in the Year,” knowing that I needed a more realistic starting point if I was going to see this through. After listening in a few days in a row, Jon decided that was also more his speed.
We are now nearly through Genesis and having daily discussions about the Bible in our house. Newsflash: there is some juicy family drama in the Bible! This morning Amazon delivered our new Great Adventure Bible and as I mentioned to the boys that their Dad and I were working our way through the Bible, one said he already knew because he "hears us talking about it every day." Our individual main goals were to deepen our faith and relationship with God but the secondary results have been strengthening our marriage and living our faith journeys for our children to observe.
The moral of this story is that even lifelong Catholics have lots to learn about our faith. It takes humility to admit, but the benefits of doing so are so rich.
With heart and soul,
Molly Mares
Principal Notre Dame of De Pere
