Author name: Molly Hostetler

It should be self-evident that Christ is the center of Christian living. After all, there is no salvation in any one else (Acts 4:12), and at the heart of the Gospel is the clarion call to follow Jesus, to become His disciples (Luke 9:23).  

Pope John Paul II said, “Down through the centuries and generations it has been seen that in suffering there is concealed a particular power that draws a person interiorly close to Christ, a special grace.”  

Many people wonder why they have to go to Church every Sunday when so many Catholics and non-Catholics have decided not to. Let’s set aside the question of whether we are currently able to attend and instead look to the future, for when we are again able to freely worship with no restrictions. Why should Catholics go back to Mass?

Despite a pandemic—perhaps more importantly, because of the spiritual difficulties of this pandemic—we have again hosted our annual Priest Conference East. Thanks to the generous help from donors, from those praying for us, and from those working with us at Oglebay, we were exceedingly happy to host over 100 priests this year.

That is a question that has been asked throughout the ages. We know that faith is a gift from God. And that very gift of God is meant to be nurtured in our lives, especially through prayer and the reception of the sacraments.

God is eternal. In other words, God is the One who does the creating. The Book of Genesis instructs us that God created time and the universe in which we live. Of course, as people who measure what we do by “keeping time,” it can be difficult to understand the concept that God has always been around. 

It is with great joy that I share that we at the St. Paul Center have completed our Fifteenth Anniversary Stewards of the Mysteries Campaign.

For over a decade, the St. Paul Center has hosted annual conferences serving and supporting the spiritual and intellectual needs of our priests. In the past two years, we’ve had the blessing to grow our outreach to two yearly retreats serving over 400 priests from around the world. 

Because God is God, He knows everything. He created the world and you and me. He knows us so well: 

O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. . . . Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. (Ps 139:1–2, 4)