Our St. Francis Xavier Church is in need of additional Eucharistic Ministers. If you have heard the calling to serve your church community in this capacity, please plan to attend one of the upcoming training opportunities presented by the Archdiocese of Louisville.

• Monday, September 15, St. Paul, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
•  Monday, October 13, St. Michael, Fairfield, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
•  Tuesday, October 21, St. Leonard, 12:30-2:30 p.m.
•  Wednesday, November 5, 2025, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
•  Wednesday, November 19, 2025, All Saints, Taylorsville 6:30-8:30 p.m.

You can register for a session on-line with the Archdiocese through the link below.

The 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

If what we were about here as we gather each Sunday was only a study of history, then today’s Gospel could be simply dissected.

The “narrow gate” equals Jesus, the “first” equals the Jewish community to which he preached, and the “last” equals the Gentile community on the fringe.

But we believe that the same Holy Spirit that inspired the scripture writers to record this Gospel wants to move us here and now with Jesus’ words. We need to know not just what the scriptures meant to the people at the time it was written; we need to know what it is saying to us now.

Here is a basic principle of public speaking: tension equals attention. This is not something new. Tension is the reality that inspires attention in those experiencing it.

Share “American Idol” example…

Tension makes us pay attention, and the trick is to make sure that the tension and its resolution crosses at just the right time. Timing is everything!

The question posed to Jesus from the crowd today provides us with tension. “Lord will only a few people be saved?”

Notice the question is not “will I be saved?” or “how will I be saved?” The question is HOW MANY? The emphasis is on the number: few, many, or all.

Here’s the tension: (1) God desires all people to be saved, BUT (2) all people must freely accept God’s offer.

How can the will of the All-powerful Creator be held up by the freedom of the created?

As with any tension, we can want to resolve the tension prematurely.

Some will want to say that few are saved because God only wants to save a prechosen lucky few.

Others will want to say all are saved because our freedom to say “no” is irrelevant. After all (they say), who could really say “no” to God, or how could God accept a “no?”

Either solution resolves the tension, but only by ignoring either the reality that God desires all people to be saved or by ignoring the reality that all people must freely accept God’s offer.

The real resolution to this tension, however, lies not through either of these wide gates, but through a narrow one.

Look at this: “Lord will only a few people be saved?” How does Jesus respond? He ignores the speculation about numbers; doesn’t say few, many, or all. Jesus focuses instead on the struggle to be saved.

Jesus knows that restrictions to entering the Kingdom do not lie with God, but with our human response to divine invitation. The parable Jesus tells is meant to inspire us to not depend on “who you know” to get into the Kingdom, but rather on the necessity of our free yes to God’s will.

Jesus focuses on our struggle to say yes to God because we often say no. And this is where Calvary comes in…

Luke goes out of his way to point out that Jesus “passed through towns and villages teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem.”

Jesus is on his way to Calvary! It is there that the tension between God’s will that all be saved crosses with our ability to say “no” to that will. Our no to God’s will brought the cross into existence!

Jesus knows that the cross is the narrow gate through which he must pass so as to open a path for us to God’s reign. So, motivated by God’s desire to save all people, Jesus freely chooses to sacrifice. This is Jesus’ yes to God’s will.

The tension between God’s will that all be saved and our human freedom to accept or reject this offer remains to this day. A tension between God’s will and ours. A tension between living for Christ or living for ourselves.

Fritz Pearls, a secular humanist, once answered the question “are you saved?” by saying, “Am I saved? I am trying to figure out how to be spent!” How are we being spent? For ourselves or for God?

 Our discipleship consists of accepting God’s invitation to freely choose to embrace God’s will that all people be saved through the narrow gate of spending ourselves in service to Christ.

Being spent for God is the only way to get through the narrow gate to salvation and timing is everything. Spend yourselves NOW.

In observance of Labor Day, the SFX Parish Office will be closed on Monday, September 1st. There is no Walking/Fellowship in the Xavier Center.

Looking for the book? Check these links/locations:

Help Needed!  We are in immediate need of a teacher’s assistant for our 7^th grade CFF class.  No lesson planning required – just come to help supervise and positively interact with an amazing group of middle school kids!   Please contact Lauren Battcher at Lauren.Battcher@sfxmw.com if you are able to fill this need!

Please join us for a 6-week bible study on finding Faith, Hope and Love in the Bible. Group will meet on Mondays @ 9:00 am in the Xavier Center double meeting room beginning September 22, 2025. Books may be purchased at www.litpress.org   A limited number of books will be available for $11 from the parish office. Please contact Sharon Mann to RSVP (sharonfaithhopelove@gmail.com).

Click HERE to view the latest edition of The Crossroads Messenger.

Click on any of the following links to download the latest information about each ministry.

Click on HERE to view the latest edition of the Honor Thy Children Newsletter.

Download previous editions through the links below.

Since I was a kid (like Pope Leo; circa 1955), I was taught to express gratitude in the moment.  Delaying is not in my vocabulary, so I wish to take this opportunity to thank each one of you for all the words of encouragement, well wishes and generous gifts as I retire from my responsibilities as a priest-pastor.  It seems that I have been saying ‘adios’ for months but now are the moments that I must make transition in my ministry as priest.  Like most people, I have never retired before so I know that it will be a learning experience with new opportunities to ‘give back’ yet rest and enjoy whatever comes my way.  I hope to take some “picker” trips and eventually finish unboxing all my hobbies of vinyl, books and ephemeral.   

Please pray for me as I will you daily.  Father Jeff is a very blest priest to be pastor of such a wonderful community as SFX!

Much peace and joy!

The Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

June 28-29, 2025

Gospel:  Matthew 16:13-19

Today we celebrate a wonderful feast, one that does not fall on Sunday that often.  Peter and Paul, two men whose names are forever linked; one reason being that tradition holds that they were both martyred in Rome – making that city the Center of Christendom.  Peter and Paul; two men who could not be more different, and yet, the Church celebrates both of their lives this day.  They seemed to have so little in common.  Paul, the educated one, the one who was so sure of himself and his theological positions, the scholar of the law.  Peter, the “every” man, the fisherman, stubborn, bumbling at times, unsure of Jesus’ mission, a regular guy who just couldn’t quite get it.  And yet, these are the two men who were given such a central role in the life of the Church.  In fact, without them, it is doubtful there would have even been a Church.  And these are two people that Jesus chose in a very particular way.

Flannery O’Connor was a Catholic woman from the South who died in the early 1960’s at the tender age of 39.  What is neat about her short-story writings, are the surprises.  In them, it is almost always the least likely character who becomes the channel of God’s grace — it is the mean guy, or the woman with one leg, or the mentally challenged kid, or the bigot, or whomever the reader least expects.  The one who seems the most righteous or perfect or whole or good is rarely, if ever, an instrument of God’s grace in her stories.

And if we look to the two men whose lives we celebrate this day, I’d have to say that Flannery O’Connor was onto something.  For here are two men who did what is almost unthinkable, two men who appeared to turn their backs on God’s goodness.  First, Paul, the great persecutor of the early Church, who witnessed the stoning of Stephen, the deacon martyr.  Then we have Peter, the one who denied Jesus three times – even after having just claimed that he never would…

Yet, their betrayals were not the end.  Rather, they were deep beginnings to a deeper and more changing relationship with Jesus.  Their lives show clearly how they went from misunderstanding God’s plan to becoming a faithful follower of it. 

My friends, ultimately this day is not so much a celebration of two men as it is a celebration of CHURCH —We celebrate the power of God to continually sustain the Church through periods of confusion, doubt or darkness… familiar?  In fact, it is precisely these moments of difficulty that provide us with, what my AA sponsor would say, “opportunities to grow” in our understanding of [A] Christ’s cross and [B] His resurrection.  What great hope they can be, for so many of us wonder, “What could God do with me?  God would never choose me.  I am too weak, too doubtful, too sinful”.  And yet, one of the things the cross teaches us is that it is precisely our weaknesses that God will use to change us and the world.  Our individual brokenness may be the starting point, but the finished product is the healing of the world around us. 

I think the key for Peter and Paul was their ability to let go of their pasts: Paul’s persecution of the early Christians and Peter’s denials of Jesus.  Either of those things could have consumed them, could have weighed heavily on their minds and hearts, could have paralyzed them and prevented them from being open to God’s grace. But it didn’t. It did not because these two men eventually embraced and lived out the Pascal Mystery in the own lives.   They were able to let go, move forward, and realize that God did not care who they were yesterday, but only cared about who they wanted to be from that moment on… just like you, you… and you!

And this should give us great hope!  How many of us think we are worthy to carry out Christ’s mission?  How many of us think we have what it takes?  Who is confident she or he can do the job, go the distance, endure the hardships… finish the race?  Maybe none of us do.Yet, this feast assures us of just the opposite.

If you are struggling with your faith…

If you are facing real darkness in your life…

If you are having a tough time following the Lord…

If nothing seems to make sense to you anymore…

If you simply think you are not worthy or good enough… Then this day is for you! 

Thanks to Peter and Paul for showing us the changing love of God.  Thanks to Peter and Paul for showing us what “laying down one’s life” really means.  Thanks to Peter and Paul for showing us how God can choose the most unlikely to accomplish the most important of things.  We ask for Peter and Paul to pray for us, that each of us will have the courage to be faithful stewards of the Lord.   May we always recognize just how much the Church needs each of us, how much God needs each of us.  

May we always have the wisdom to let go of our pasts and let God change us into the people He needs us to be… just for today.  Amen.

Starting the weekend of June 28th & 29th, we will begin following the Norms of Posture during the Communion Rite as described in the following letter from Archbishop Shelton.

All SFX parishioners enjoy a free subscription to FORMED. Click HERE to check out the pick of the week.

Congratulations to Sarah Bischoff for being awarded the Patricia French Honorary Scholarship.  

This scholarship was established and awarded for the first time in 2017 with an objective to honor Patricia K. French by recognizing and financially supporting a deserving member of the St. Francis Xavier Community with tuition assistance for college or vocational  school. To qualify, students must be SFX parishioners in their senior year of high school, demonstrate a solid work ethic, and be a service-oriented person of high Christian moral values.

This year’s field of applicants were all deemed by the judges to be highly qualified and their decision was a difficult one, but Sarah Kate’s involvement at St. Francis Xavier and her plans for the future, lifted her to the top. The daughter of Ronnie and Jaime Booker, Sarah impressed the judges with her can-do attitude and self awareness. With plans to attend Murray State University, majoring in Agricultural Education, Sarah hopes to find a church community that offers the same small town parish atmosphere that she enjoys at SFX. She intends to continue answering Christ’s call to love and serve through music ministry wherever her journey takes her.

Prayer for Vocations

God our Almighty Father, you call each of us to a particular vocation.

Bless your Church by giving men and women the courage, zeal, and humility to respond “Yes” to your call to serve the people of the Archdiocese as holy priests and consecrated religious.

Call forth from our families those who will serve faithfully and generously in the generations ahead.

We bring our prayer for vocations to You, Father, through the intercession of Mary our Mother, in the Holy Spirit, through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

In honor of Mother’s Day, Little Way Pregnancy Center will be offering a beautiful, grace-filled gift for mothers. Archbishop Shelton will offer a mass for your mother—living or deceased.

It is said that— “The graces acquired by having a Mass said for a special intention are beyond earthly comprehension. The Mass is the greatest prayer and therefore the most powerful means to help others and ourselves gain eternity with him.”

Mother’s Day cards detailing the gift of this special Mass offered by our Archbishop, will be available Mother’s Day weekend in the back of church. For on-line donations and Mass enrollment visit www.littleway.org/mothersday or click HERE.

For over 40 years, Little Way has served the women and families in our community—offering free medical services for expectant moms, parenting classes, baby closet items, and support groups for both mothers and fathers.

All proceeds will benefit the life-saving work of Little Way. Thank you for your support.