You belong . . . Here!

Jim Eckert is a retired broadcaster. He is also a writer and works for the Minnesota Historical Society as a historic interpreter at Fort Snelling. He is married and has two grown children and five grandchildren.

Mass at St. Mark in St. Paul ended at noon, but Jeremy and Autumn Irlbeck didn’t get home until 1 p.m. — and they only live six blocks away.

It’s a way to recharge. It’s a vaccination for the week ahead. It’s a joyous thing. It’s another opportunity to reach people. It’s a priority. It’s an amazing hour where we meet our God. It’s Jesus in the Eucharist. It’s Mass, and there are myriad reasons why Catholics participate every week.

When several pastors were asked: “For which ministries at your parish are you most in need of more volunteers?” their common response was: “All of them.”

Every Sunday, Catholics all over the world recite the Nicene Creed at Mass. This ancient prayer serves as a summary of our Christian faith. But how many of us actually think about the meaning of the words we recite from memory week after week? Father Michael Byron, associate professor of theology at the St. Paul Seminary and pastor of St. Cecilia in St. Paul, offers this breakdown of the creed to help Catholics gain a better understanding of the fundamentals of their faith.

The beatitudes have a central prominence in the Gospels. Taken from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel (5:3-10) and his Sermon on the Plain in Luke’s Gospel (6:20-26), the beatitudes tell us how we should live our lives in a way that is pleasing to God. “Jesus does a lot of things in his earthly life,” said Father Michael Byron, theology professor at the St. Paul Seminary and pastor of St. Cecilia in St. Paul. “But there are a few times where he deliberately stops and teaches directly. This is one of those times.”