St. Tarcisius

Tarcisius was a twelve-year-old acolyte during one of the fierce Roman persecutions of the third century, probably during that of Valerian. Each day, from a secret meeting place in the catacombs where Christians gathered for Mass, a deacon would be sent to the prisons to carry the Eucharist to those Christians condemned to die. At one point,

there was no deacon to send and so St. Tarcisius, an acolyte, was sent carrying the “Holy Mysteries” to those in prison. On the way, he was stopped by boys his own age who were not Christians but knew him as a playmate and lover of games. He was asked to join their games, but this time he refused, and the crowd of boys noticed that he was carrying something. Somehow, he was also recognized as a Christian, and the small gang of boys, anxious to view the Christian “Mysteries,” became a mob and turned upon Tarcisius with fury. He went down under the blows, and it is believed that a fellow Christian drove off the mob and rescued the young acolyte. The mangled body of Tarcisius was carried back to the catacombs, but the boy died on the way from his injuries.

Because of St. Tarcisius’ example of care for the Eucharist, he is often held up as an example for Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion (EMHCs), and an intercessor to invoke when one is tasked with caring for our Lord in the Eucharist and bringing Him to His faithful people. This past week, we had a retraining for our EMHCs who bring Holy Communion to the sick and homebound. We gave each of the Extraordinary Ministers a holy card of St. Tarcisius to remind them of the dignity of the ministry they have the honor to be a part of. This retraining was to help give us consistency and uniformity across the Family of Parishes for EMHCs and for our priests. If you were not able to make it to one of the trainings, please contact the coordinator of Holy Communion to the homebound and sick for your parish to get the updated guidelines. Hopefully, these were already sent to you. Please be patient with adjustments in these procedures; the modifications were made for the sake of unity and reverent devotion for Jesus’ True Presence in the Eucharist.

We have also made an adjustment to marriage preparation in our Family of Parishes. We will begin utilizing the “Witness to Love” model for marriage preparation in our Family of Parishes. The implementation of Witness to Love is NOT sudden and those couples who have already begun the marriage preparation process will not be affected by this augmentation to our process. It will take time for us to lay a firm foundation to begin the Witness to Love model in earnest. Witness to Love is an accompaniment model for marriage preparation. It uses mentor couples chosen by the engaged couple. So, if you are in our pews every week… beware! You may be tapped by an engaged couple to help them walk through their marriage prep process. Witness to Love provides the materials and the mentor couple helps to facilitate the conversations with the engaged couple. So, both couples have the opportunity to grow in their marriage and in their relationship with Jesus Christ. Why change the model? Because our culture is changing, and this culture change is beginning to seep into Shelby County. We need to provide our engaged couples with the best we have to offer them: The experience of long, fruitful marriage provided by the mentor couple and the Church’s rich, beautiful spirituality and theology of marriage. This process also serves to give both the mentor couple and engaged couple the opportunity to talk about their faith and their story. Testimony is the telling of our story of Faith in Christ. It’s about how we came to that Faith and how we have grown in that Faith. Testimony is the basis of evangelization, and as a result, Witness to Love aids us in evangelizing. Evangelizing and catechizing both the engaged couple and the mentor couple prepares both couples to witness to how God’s love has transformed them and their marriage. With somewhere between 60-80 weddings a year in our Family of Parishes, we will be raising up many people who can share their Faith on a deeper level.

Thank you to Fr. Thomas Steinke who covered Masses and Confessions for our Family of Parishes while the four priests of our Family were at the archdiocesan priests’ convocation. Divine Providence came through in a big way for us to meet the sacramental needs of the people of the NW-7 Family of Parishes. I truly appreciate the generosity of my brother priests. Please remember to pray for your priests.

Peace in Christ,

Fr. Jarred Kohn